Veso

  Mark’s droning voice grated on her nerves. “Where is my dad?”

  “Um…” Mark grew silent.

  She tensed. “What is going on?”

  “They got your father,” he stated softly.

  “Stop playing games. What are you talking about?” A list of reasons why she hated Mark Tarnet filled her head, beginning with the way he could never just spit something out. He seemed to take pleasure from annoying others. “Who has my father? Was he arrested? What for this time? Did he trespass on private property again?”

  “Do you see his tablet? Open it and let’s do this live.”

  “Just tell me what the hell is going on and where my dad is!”

  The silence was on purpose. He refused to answer.

  She cursed, hanging up the CB and rising from the seat. The tablet was on the kitchen counter and she turned it on. Within seconds, an incoming request came for video chat. She clicked it on and glared at her father’s research partner.

  His appearance stunned her. His hair was wild and his usually rounded face looked gaunt. He sat in what appeared to be a metal room, and she saw two people crouched behind him. Peggy didn’t appear as if she’d brushed her hair in a good while and Brent’s normally clean-shaven face had days of growth. The siblings both seemed exhausted.

  “You look like hell.” Jadee lifted the tablet, making sure the plug wasn’t pulled, and took a seat at the table in front of the gun. She used it to help prop up the device. “I take it that’s the interior of that new trailer my dad told me about? It looks industrial.”

  “What did your father tell you about why we’re here?” Mark leaned in closer.

  Jadee wasn’t in a mood to play games. “The same crap he always says. He thought he was finally going to have proof about his theories. I only came because he was so worked up. He’s already had one heart attack. Someone needed to talk some sense into him. I would have called to ask how to find him faster but my cell couldn’t pick up a signal. Speaking of, how come we can get the internet here?”

  “It’s a short-distance signal we set up.” Peggy bent lower, peering at the camera over Mark’s shoulder. “Are you sure the doors are locked and the shutters are still down? It’s important.”

  “Let me guess. It’s getting dark and you’re expecting visitors.” Jadee became more annoyed. “I’ll tell you the same thing I told my dad. Nobody in their right mind would want to live out here—including Vampires. They theoretically would stick to large cities with lots of people since they’re supposed to drink human blood. This was a bullshit trip you made. There isn’t even a hospital near here. What are you geniuses going to do if my dad gets sick again? Somebody has to look out for him since none of you will.”

  Brent leaned forward, hogging the screen. “I’m so sorry, Jadee. We believe your dad is dead.”

  The shock felt as if she’d been punched in the gut. Denial was instant. “What do you mean you think? What are you talking about?”

  Mark shoved him aside, intently peering at her. “We found damaged night walkers.”

  Jadee was about to lose her temper—big time. “I don’t want to hear this crap! Is he lost in the woods or something? Did you call in search and rescue?”

  “It’s true,” Brent swore. “We were contacted by a reliable source via our website about a sighting of Vampires. He also said some people he knew had disappeared. He was certain the Vampires were taking them.”

  Jadee resisted rolling her eyes. “Oh, someone from your website said so? It must have been true. How do you know he was reliable?”

  Brent hesitated. “Well, he sounded sincere and he had good details, so we packed up and headed here. We lost contact with him after that though and were worried that something happened to him. We arrived five days ago and set our trap. We caught four of them.”

  “They’re Vampires,” Peggy whispered shakily. “Real ones.”

  “They were more animalistic than we expected,” Mark added. “They seemed mentally unstable too but they’re allergic to sunlight. It burns them. That’s why you’ve got to make sure you’re locked in and the shutters are down. It’s too late to reach you. It’s already getting dark. You’re going to have to stay there until morning.”

  “The Vampires escaped,” Peggy blurted. “Your dad had already called you and you said you were flying here. We weren’t sure when you’d arrive And we can’t get cell service, so we weren’t able to warn you to stay away. We didn’t even know they’d escaped at first until Victor disappeared last night. They were too strong to handle at night so we were only running tests on them when the sun came up.”

  “We’d locked ourselves inside at night, thankfully. Otherwise we’d all be dead.” Mark paused. “I’m so sorry, Jadee. They got him.”

  “His car is gone. He must have driven to get groceries.” Jadee wondered if the extreme isolation had made them jump to the worst conclusions possible.

  “They pushed it into a ravine,” Peggy whimpered. “They’ve done that to all our cars, and we found tracks where they pushed the big rig that hauls this trailer into the river. They’ve stranded us.”

  “Right.” She was fed up. “This guy who contacted you probably has friends and they’re messing with you.”

  “No. It’s all true!” Peggy swore. “This isn’t a hoax.”

  “The RV is fine.” She glanced around.

  “The engine isn’t. We checked it during the day once we realized we were trapped. The RV’s impossible for them to move. There were signs that they’d crawled under it so we took a peek. Your father had activated the emergency pillars on the motor home. They are six footings that flatten to the ground. It’s a precaution for high winds and bad storms. The wheels won’t roll. We have the same setup here. It’s why they haven’t managed to kill us yet.”

  Jadee was fed up. Their paranoid delusions had finally gotten the best of them. Her father ran for supplies often and his hunk-of-junk tow car had probably just broken down again. He refused to spend money on it. “The RV has power. Notice the lights on?”

  “It’s the solar panels. I’m telling you, we looked under it and they ripped out the oil pan on the motor home. It wasn’t shielded as well as the hood is with the reinforced steel.” Mark shook his head. “We’re stranded. They’ve taken out all our vehicles.”

  Jadee clenched her jaw, ready to start screaming at the idiots. They were so gullible. “Have you guys been smoking pot? Been adding a little LSD to it again? Is that it? Or have you just totally lost your damn minds? Dad probably went to a major town because he needed his car repaired. Remember New Mexico? You called to tell me you thought he’d been kidnapped by an army of ghosts. Instead, he was waiting on a new transmission to be installed in some out-of-the-way repair shop.”

  “Wait until darkness falls,” Mark warned. “They tried to break into our trailer a few times last night.”

  Peggy leaned in, her face close to the screen. “Do not let them in! I know you don’t believe us but damn it, we found Vampires, hon. These are real Vampires. They kill their victims by tearing out their throats and drinking the blood.”

  “Show her the evidence,” Brent urged. “We found a few bodies of the locals. They decapitated them postmortem. We believe it’s so they won’t turn, if legend is accurate about their bites transmitting the Vampire disease. Maybe we should ask her to rush outside and make a run for it in her rental car. She could come back in the morning to rescue us.”

  Jadee frowned. “I rented a truck from the airport, not a car. Dad said I’d need one to get to your camp.”

  “It’s too late,” Peggy moaned. “It’s miles to the main highway. You’ve seen how fast those things run. They’d catch up to her and attack. Hell, they would probably be on her before she made it ten feet out the door. Look at the cameras. The sun is too far down. It’s already dark enough for them to be awake and moving around in the shade of all the trees.”

  “They have us cut off,” Mark agreed. “She’d never get out of he
re in time and escape.”

  A bad feeling settled in the pit of Jadee’s stomach but she didn’t want to believe what they had to say. Her father and his team had never found anything real. They sure weren’t going to locate a nest of Vampires in the middle of the Alaskan woods. “Hey, loco researchers,” Jadee interrupted. “I’m done playing this game. Where the hell is my father, really?”

  “Maybe they won’t go to the motor home since they already took Victor.” Mark ignored her to instead stare at Peggy. “It’s possible they won’t find her rental if we make a lot of noise and keep them occupied. At first light, we can make it out together.”

  “That means they’ll attack us again.” Peggy backed up and bumped against the wall. The terror on her face appeared genuine enough as she frantically looked around. “Can the exterior take it?”

  Mark stood, approaching her with his hands outstretched to grip her by the shoulders. “The trailer shell has two inches of steel. We’re safe. Stay calm. We built it to withstand a Sasquatch attack. They’re supposedly bigger and stronger than night walkers. We made it last night, didn’t we?”

  Jadee rolled her eyes. “Sasquatch?”

  Brent dropped into Mark’s empty seat. “We were on Bigfoot’s trail and your dad had designed this trailer after hearing about how the creatures were breaking into cabins. He wanted us to be safe. It’s a nine- by twenty-five-foot container with all our monitoring equipment. We even have a toilet and two pull-down bunks for taking naps.”

  “Oh my God. Does it have windows? Maybe you guys are experiencing carbon monoxide poisoning or something. Open a door and let in fresh air. How long have you been locked in there?” Jadee wondered if that was the reason they’d lost their minds.

  A loud thump sounded over the speakers and all three of the people on the screen looked upward toward the roof of the metal container they were inside. Brent’s eyes widened as he gasped, “They’re back!”

  Peggy began to sob.

  Mark hugged her against his chest. “Quiet!”

  “Where’s the trailer?” Jadee stood. “I’m coming over there just to prove that you guys are nuts. Or your so-called source is just some asshole having fun at your expense. You’ve lost it. You need to open the doors and I’ll take you to a nice hospital where they’ll treat you for whatever the hell is wrong with you.”

  “Hook her into the outside monitors,” Mark hissed. “Show her what we’re seeing.”

  “Did you hear me?” Jadee’s frustration rose. “Tell me where you guys set up in relation to the RV and I’ll come there.”

  Brent twisted to the side and suddenly her view changed to a dark screen. She could tell by the gray-toned images that they were using the night-vision cameras. The trees were clearly outlined and they seemed to be set up in a small clearing without any signs of civilization. The image switched, going to another camera angle.

  A man stood on top of what appeared to be a shipping trailer, the kind usually hooked to a big rig. It was a view from the top of the roof looking down the length. Jadee frowned, staring at the back of the person. He wore slacks and a ripped-up dark shirt. His hair was shoulder length and scraggly. He turned, facing the camera as he jumped once, seeming to test the roof of the trailer. The night camera made him look really pale, and his eyes appeared black to her as he scanned the top of the roof.

  She gasped when a second figure suddenly seemed to drop from the sky next to the first man. The sound was loud when he landed and it happened so fast, she hadn’t expected it. It was another man, his hair almost as stark white as his skin. He wore a dark t-shirt and jeans.

  Jadee gripped the tablet with both hands and sank back into the seat.

  The camera view changed to one showing the back of the trailer. It had double doors, just like any other big-rig trailer she’d ever seen, and a woman in a long black dress was trying to pry them apart with her bare hands. Her hair was dark, down to her ass in a ratty mess. The angle was from above, and she looked up, almost peering into the lens. Her mouth opened, revealing some gnarly, sharp-looking fangs.

  “Holy fuck,” Jadee whispered. Shock kept her gaze glued to the screen.

  The woman resembled something right out of a horror movie with that scary open mouth. It got worse when she bent, suddenly jumping. Her body passed the camera at least twelve feet above her, her clothes a blur. She was gone from view in a flash.

  The camera feed switched back to the top of the trailer, showing all three of them on the roof. They jumped around, the sounds noisy. Their erratic, weird movements reminded Jadee of marionette dolls being jerked upright, only they didn’t have strings attached to them to leap that high. They fell hard enough that it made her wince when their feet hit metal. It should have hurt them, possible even broken their bones.

  The feed changed, showing Brent’s face very close to the camera. “Did you see them? Make a run for it,” he hissed. “While they’re here.”

  “Don’t! There’s only three of them here. The fourth one might be close to her.” Mark was suddenly there, tearing the other tablet out of Brent’s hands. “They run fast, damn it! It’s too quiet without the wind blowing and they might hear your engine start. Sound carries in these mountains. Just stay there until the sun rises. You’re the only hope we have.”

  “Shut up!” Peggy hissed. “Listen. They stopped.”

  Mark turned his head, staring at something to the side of the camera. His mouth parted. “They’re gone. I don’t see them on any of the cameras.” He looked at Jadee. “You’re locked in, right? You didn’t open the shutters?”

  “You think they heard us talking to her?” Brent cursed. “Fuck!”

  She abandoned the tablet on the table. Pure fear coursed through Jadee and it helped launch her to her feet, moving fast to the side door. She reached it and threw the bolts and bars that helped secure the door in place. She glanced at the windows, making certain all the security shutters were down. They were.

  “Jadee!”

  She returned to the table and picked up the forgotten tablet. “What?”

  Brent’s eyes were wide and his gaze locked on her. “Are you locked in with the shutters down?”

  “Yes.”

  “Keep quiet and turn off the lights. You don’t want to draw their attention if they don’t know you’re there,” he whispered.

  “She said the shutters are down. They can’t see inside if the lights are on or not,” Peggy whispered. “Just be quiet.”

  Jadee didn’t move. No way was she going to turn off the lights and sit in the dark to startle at every sound. She remembered the camping trip on her twelfth birthday, when they’d told her Werewolves were coming, and her father’s team had played some recorded wolf howls. She’d damn near peed herself sitting in front of the campfire until they’d laughed, pointing out the speakers.

  Then there was the time they’d left fake gold coins around her bed when she’d been eight, telling her leprechauns had visited while she slept. Saying how luck she’d been not to be carried off by them. She’d believed it until she’d realized the coins were made of chocolate, covered with foil. Other pranks they’d pulled flashed through her mind, too many. It made her think this had to be another joke. They could have put footage together of the so-called Vampires and staged the entire thing.

  It had sucked being Victor Trollis’s daughter at times, thanks to her father and his team of researchers dragging her all over the world hunting for mythical creatures. It had only stopped after she’d demanded to live with her grandmother to have some semblance of normalcy.

  She got a grip on her hammering heart and glared at the camera. “You guys suck. Put my dad on now. Is this payback for not driving to Arizona for his birthday two months ago? Some of us have to work real jobs instead of living off my dad’s trust fund, pursuing crazy notions of myths. How did that last trip work out for you guys, anyway? Did you find a Chupacabra? No? Big surprise!”

  Something landed on the roof of the RV hard enough to make it ro
ck. Jadee lifted her gaze, her mouth parting.

  “Be quiet,” Brent breathed.

  Heavy tread stomped from the kitchen area above her to the back, toward her father’s bedroom. She put the tablet down, ignoring it, and grabbed her dad’s gun.

  The handle of the door she’d used to get inside rattled but the lock held. Something smashed into it, sounding very much like a fist. A deep hiss followed.

  “Fuck me,” Jadee muttered. She stood, only glancing down to make sure the safety was off on the gun. “Dad? Not funny.”

  The stomping ceased for a second. Whoever was up there turned around, walking back. Each footstep was loud enough for her to track despite not being able to see up there. She slid out the gun’s clip and checked the ammunition. It was loaded with real bullets, not blanks. She’d been raised around enough guns to know the difference by sight. She slid the clip back in and checked the chamber, seeing a round already loaded.

  Something smashed into the glass behind one of the shutters. The sound assured her it did enough damage to probably web the safety glass. That was either a baseball bat or something equally destructive. Her father wouldn’t harm his precious Road Warrior—the title he’d dubbed his RV—for a joke. It had cost him hundreds of thousands of dollars to specially outfit it the way he’d wanted.

  “Shut up!” Mark demanded, his voice coming from the forgotten tablet on the table.

  She turned, glancing down to see all three of her father’s team staring at her, huddled around their camera. She reached over and found the volume, muting them as she stood in the middle of the aisle, tense.

  A loud boom came from the top of the roof. In seconds, it repeated, and in her mind, she could almost imagine one of those things doing the same thing to her father’s RV that they’d done to the trailer, those freaky, weird leaps into the air only to slam down moments later. A third and fourth loud boom assured her one of them seemed to be testing the strength of the roof.

  Jadee looked at the gun in her hand. The Glock 19 suddenly didn’t make her feel safe. She kept hold of it and inched down the hallway, going directly under the loud thumps from above to reach the hallway closet. She yanked it open, shoving coats aside to get to the hidden back panel. The six-digit code had always been her birthday. She opened the safe and reached for the thigh holster. It took about a minute to secure it on and snuggly slip the handgun into the cradle, the weight of it comforting. She felt a little safer gripping the Bushmaster ACR rifle. It only took seconds to slide in a clip.