by David Salkin
we need to solve this one on our own, and I hope the people in this
room are going to help me. This killer—human, animal, whatever it is,
is currently residing in your city. I am pretty sure about that. This city
has more strange cases that relate to my file than any other place on
Earth, and unless you are fine with finding torn up corpses all over The
Big Apple, I suggest everyone open their mind to possibilities that you
couldn’t imagine a week ago.”
Heather folded her arms and made a face. “Agent Patmore, we
had a similar discussion a week ago. About keeping an open mind, I
mean. What we do need, is access to whatever information you have.
Evidence, photos, leads, everything. Anything that helps this taskforce.
We want to catch this animal. And human or not—he
is an animal.
I have been to a few crime scenes. This killer is unlike anything we’ve
ever seen before.”
“You have my full cooperation, just like I hope I have yours. And
yes, Captain Ammiano, I understand your skepticism, and it’s okay.
Just keep an open mind and help me catch this guy before he kills
again.”
Tim’s cell phone rang and he looked at the number and excused
himself. He walked to a corner of the room and spoke quietly for a
while, then came back to the table with a grave face.
“Well, one of my buds uptown just called me to tell me they have
four stiffs in the morgue. All gangbangers with priors, so it’s no huge
surprise that they’d be victims of violent crime. Except that the coroner,
who’d been put on notice by us to look for weird shit like this, just
called to tell me that the victims had been killed with extreme violence,
some had apparent bite marks, and had been torn up as if by wild
animals—prior to being set on fire.”
Doug leaned back in his chair. “He burns the bodies to cover his
tracks. And that’s worked for him for a very long time. But now we’re
on to him. And we’re going to catch this animal.”
Twenty-Four
VWX
Sara’s Apartment
Adam had been awake most of the night, lying in bed naked with Sara. He admired her body, and listened to her breathing and heartbeat. She was very warm, and actually felt very pleasant. He had now not eaten for a day and a half, and his body temperature was cooling and heart rate was slowing. He would need to eat soon if he was to remain in her company without devouring her. For now, he was under control, and enjoying the new sensations. He ran his hand over her lower back and round buttocks, and she stirred. He smiled as he listened to her waking up. Sleep. Real sleep. He hadn’t experienced that since the Battle of Jena, and the concept of day versus night and awake versus sleep was so obscure.
Sara rolled over and faced him, and brushed her thick hair out of
• 143 • her face. She gave him a slow smile and reached out to pull him closer. “You!” she exclaimed, “Are amazing. That may have been the single best date of my life.’ She paused and pulled back. “I don’t mean for that to scare you—you don’t have to race out of here or anything. I’m not picking out wedding dresses.”
He looked at her, somewhat confused.
“I was kidding, Adam. Relax. But seriously…you are an amazing man. Dinner was perfect, although I think I drank too much, the show was absolutely spectacular, and you—oh my God. I have never come so many times in one night in my life. I think you should have your tongue bronzed.”
Adam smiled and thought about that for a moment, then realized she was referring to oral sex. Yes, women did seem to enjoy that. The hardest part was always not ripping through the femoral artery too quickly. The blood was always best when the woman was in a heightened state of arousal, and that technique never failed. Adam rolled her on to her back and slid down her body. She squealed.
“No!” she screamed playfully. “I’m not even awake yet!” He didn’t care, he found his ability to control her sexually to be quite enjoyable, and he began to work on her with his tongue again. It wasn’t long before she was moaning again, and her blood was pounding in her chest. He could hear the “whoosh” noise of the blood in her femoral arteries, on each side of his ears like headphones, and he fought hard to keep his fangs from extending into the feeding position. Sara came hard, thrashing about the bed as she screamed and threw her legs about. Adam inhaled the chemicals of her body, his mind wandering to thoughts about what she must taste like. It was so difficult to keep the animal in. He would need to feed soon. He focused his thoughts on her pleasure, and kept his mind clear of the bloodlust building in his body.
Forever Hunger • 145 When Sara collapsed back on the bed, completely out of breathe, Adam knew she was done, and he rolled on to his back and thought about how he would broach the subject of having her join him in his current undead condition. Sara had him back in her mouth again, and made him lose his concentration. The girl liked having him inside her, he remembered, and he smiled when she slid up his body and mounted him for a morning session that was every bit as intense as the evening before.
When Sara was completely exhausted, Adam let her fall asleep beside him. Her breathing and heart rate were proof of just how deep a sleep she was enjoying. He watched her for a while, and then decided he should go and take care of his own urges lest he ruin what could be such nice company. He rose quietly, dressed, and slipped out of her apartment. It was Saturday morning, and the street was quiet and bright with sunshine. His skin was beginning to pale, and his eyes were going from deep blue to their silvery color. It was faster than his usual feeding cycle, but perhaps he had used the blood up faster than usual with all of the sexual exertion and stimulation of her company. Adam hustled through the streets, wondering where he could find an easy meal that wouldn’t raise suspicion on such a pretty, bright day.
After an hour of walking, lost in thoughts that spanned a century, Adam found himself in a very small park in a quiet residential neighborhood. It was still early for a weekend, and there was almost no activity on the street. Adam stopped and closed his eyes. He smelled the air deeply, listened hard, and cocked his head. He was like a bird listening for worms under the soil. He stood motionless, feeling a heartbeat nearby—it was coming from the park. He walked slowly and quietly until he saw the homeless man sleeping on a park bench. He frowned. The homeless were his least favorite meals. They were dirty and smelled foul. Their blood was full of alcohol and drugs most of the time, and he could practically taste the diseases in them. He recalled spitting a worm out of a mouthful of blood from one of them and made a sour face. Adam glanced around. There was no one else around.
He walked up quickly to the sleeping man, curled up in the fetal position on the green wooden bench and let his talons slide out. His mouth filled up with teeth as they moved into their feeding position. He could feel the lust for blood building up inside, but he didn’t like being so out in the open. Adam grabbed the man by the throat, his talons cutting deep into the man’s larynx, making him incapable of screaming. With the strength of many men, Adam dragged the man into the cover of some trees and low shrubs and pushed him against the ground, his knee in the man’s stomach.
The homeless man, maybe fifty years old but looking much older, was gurgling in shock and horror as he looked up to see what must have been the Grim Reaper himself. Adam leaned in and bit deeply into the man’s throat, his hot blood exploding into Adam’s mouth. As Adam’s eye’s rolled back in total bliss, he pictured Sara’s naked body, remembered her delicious smells and tastes, and sucked the man dry within a few moments. He finished and looked around him. What to do with the body? He was getting careless. Near the bench there were two small dumpsters, one for recyclables and one for regular trash. He picked up
the man, now much lighter, having been drained of his blood and bodily fluids, and rushed to the dumpster. He shoved him deep inside and covered him with trash, closed the top, and rushed out of the quiet park. The taste of the man was warm and nourishing, although not any special delicacy. At least it would keep him under control as he tried to figure out a way to bring Sara into his world.
Twenty-Five
VWX
Adam’s Lair
Adam wiped off his face and moved quickly back to his own apartment. Once there, he showered, knowing he would stink of the old homeless man, and wanted to see Sara again as soon as possible. As he took off his clothes and walked towards his bathroom, his cell phone rang. There was only one person on Earth who knew his number, and he smiled.
“Well, hello,” he said. “Hey you—where did you go? Am I humped and dumped?” she asked. Adam could hear the smile in her voice.
“Of course not, Sara. You looked so peaceful sleeping. I thought you needed your rest.”
“Yeah, well, someone wore me out. My God, Adam. I slept like a
• 147 •
rock. You are amazing. Don’t get a big head or anything, but I have never had a night like last night. You are amazing.” He smiled, genuinely happy to know he had pleased her. It was interesting to him, to feel something human again. It brought emotions that made him sad, but also made him excited and hungry for more of her. “I would say exactly the same thing. In all these years, you alone have made me feel so…” He realized he was thinking out loud. He was about to say “human” when he caught himself. Sara giggled on her end of the phone.
“Yeah, because you are somuch older than me! ‘In all these years’”, she said, imitating his voice as best she could. “I make you feel so what?”
He smiled. “Hungry.” He said quietly.
“Oh my,” she said as sexy as she could. “And aren’t you the naughtiest man I ever met. And I kind of like it—a lot,” she added. “So do I get a second date, or was this a wham-bam-thank you, ma’am?” She hated to sound so hung up on him already, but he really had rocked her world, and she wanted to see him as soon as possible.
“I would love to see you again. Tonight, even.”
“Reeeeeally…” she said, again trying to sound as alluring as possible.
“Really.”
“Well, last night you were obviously trying very hard to impress me, so tonight I will do my best to impress you. How about I make us an intimate little dinner at my place, just the two of us?”
He almost said yes, and then remembered his minor problem with dining. “I’m afraid I can’t do dinner. I have some work I need to attend to. I wouldn’t be able to see you until almost nine. You go on and eat, and I’ll come by after that?”
“You are just trying to use me for sex aren’t you?” she asked jokingly. “Well, I can make a late supper.”
“No, no food,” he said. “The only thing I want to eat is you.”
· · ·
Adam showered and dressed. He looked in the mirror. He looked so human. His skin was warm and had human color, and his eyes were deep blue. He actually wanted to look human…to look attractive to a human. He laughed at himself. Then he felt the cold feeling of sadness as he remembered the huge separation between them. They could never truly be together until she knew his secret. Until she knew and wanted to be just like him. Or until he just went ahead and made her like him whether she wanted to be or not. And could he even do it?
Adam left his apartment and walked to a pet store. He purchased a dog that someone had sold back to the store because they were moving to an apartment that didn’t allow dogs. It was an older dog, a female named Misty that was a mutt, but good natured. When Adam asked to buy the dog, the pet shop owner saw the way the dog cowered from the man, but didn’t comment. Two hundred bucks was two hundred bucks, and the dog was “used” and hard to sell. The man gave Adam the dog on a leash, and Adam pulled the dog out of the store with him. It had been a “less than emotional” purchase, and the owner hoped that the man wouldn’t hurt the sweet old dog. He watched the dog walk out, tail between its legs, after the man that pulled it along.
Adam walked back to his apartment and as he got close, realized that dogs weren’t allowed in his building either. He picked the dog up under his arm, wrapped his coat around it, and walked quickly inside. He made it to his room unnoticed and closed the door behind him. He put the pooch down and she immediately moved away from him, backing into a corner of the room. She was growling—she was cowering. Adam smiled.
“Come, Misty. I am going to show you how to live forever. That’s seven forevers in dog years,” he joked. He moved quietly across the room, his talons and teeth sliding out as the dog whined in fear, smelling death moving towards it. Adam had eaten a few dogs in his early years. Dogs and many other small animals. But they were no substitute for human blood. Adam sat on the floor and pulled the dog into his lap. He stroked the dogs fur, calming her down until she was panting, her ears still pinned back on her head. Her tail was still between her legs. Adam closed his eyes and thought about the Battle of Jena. He tried to remember the attack of that creature in the forest—the breath in his lungs…the blood in his mouth. He leaned down and pulled the dogs head back, and quickly opened its throat with one of his long claws. The dogs legs started kicking involuntary as it felt itself mortally wounded, and then Adam’s mouth was on the dogs open throat. He exhaled slowly into its lungs, and made himself vomit up some of the warm sticky blood that curdled in his stomach.
Disgusting air and blood flooded the dog’s senses as it kicked and slowly died. Adam blew into its lungs a few more times, feeling the dogs chest expand like he was blowing up a balloon. He dropped the dog and moved away from it, sitting on the couch as it bled slowly onto his wooden floor. The dog’s legs twitched a few times and then went silent. The dog’s long tongue slid out of its mouth and the dogs’ eyes went dull and lifeless. Adam watched intently, feeling the anger build up inside him. What had he done wrong?
With the dead dog still lying in the middle of his floor, Adam got up and walked to the corner of his room, where he squatted with his back against the corners and his arms wrapped around his shins, his chin on his knees. He closed his eyes and thought back to the woods that day in Jena. What had the creature done differently? Could the curse not be given to a dog? His thoughts wandered through the sea of time, and he was lost.
Hours passed as Adam crouched in the corner bat-like, silently remembering a hundred and fifty years of his experience in the world. The whining of a dog snapped him out of trance.
Misty was awake, but not looking anything like the dog that had been so cute in the pet store. The fuzzy dog with soft brown eyes looked rabid. Its fur was matted and crusty with dried blood. Her ears were still pinned back, but the eyes that had gone dim hours before were now bright—bright red. The animal’s teeth seemed to have grown longer, and she was foaming at the mouth, a low growl coming out of her throat. Apparently, the animal didn’t like being dead.
Adam smiled broadly. “Welcome to my world,” he said quietly to the dog. The dog hunched its shoulder and growled more menacingly. “Shhh,” said Adam as he approached the dog, now at full growl. As he got closer, the small dog leapt at him, aiming at his throat. Adam raised his forearm to protect himself, and the dog’s long fangs sank into his arm. He screamed in pain, shocked by the strength of the small animal, and the fact that it actually caused him so much agony. He let his own talons slide out and grabbed the dog by the back of its neck. It was wildly clawing and growling at him, as he held it in midair. He looked at the animal’s face. “This must be what I look like when I am feeding,” he thought to himself. He was so curious about the animal. What would it do if he let it out on the street? He didn’t want to kill it. He had created it, like the creature had created him. It struggled and tried to get free of Adam’s clawed hand, snapping its teeth at Adam, completely wild. Adam made a sad face. He couldn’t let it go. It might bring
attention to him, and he couldn’t allow that. He grabbed the animal’s head with his other clawed hand and pulled as hard as he could, ripping the head off of the undead beast.
The head continued to snap and try and growl, but with no air behind the growl, no sound came out. The legs continued to claw at the air for several minutes, until Adam was tired of his experiment, and he ripped the animal into small pieces until they stopped moving. His arm throbbed. It was bleeding from holes made by the creature’s fangs. Surprising.
Adam grabbed a garbage bag and picked up the pieces of dog and threw it in, then tied off the plastic bag. He went to the sink and washed off the blood, then tasted it. It was the blood from the homeless man. It was starting to make more sense. When he was fully fed, and the closest he could be to being “alive”, he was most vulnerable. When he was dead, bullets and weapons didn’t seem to hurt him. Interesting.
Adam cleaned up and then scoured his apartment. He put all the trash in the bag with the dog pieces, and went to the garbage disposal in the hallway. He dropped the bag down the chute, happy that Monday morning was “furnace day” in the building. When Adam went back inside he realized it was after seven at night. The day had gone by in a blur, and he had a date with Sara again. He smiled, knowing that he had the power to make her like himself. He decided he would feed again before he went to see her. Thoughts of her naked body made his blood lust stronger, and he needed more time with her. He would find food quickly before he went to see her.
Twenty-Six
VWX
Is it called a “Man” Hunt?
Sergeant Ruiz, Lt. Joe Alexander, Captain Tim Rosetto and Special Agent Doug Patmore piled into Doug’s brown sedan and rode uptown to the 30th precinct where four former gang bangers were now in black plastic bags, lying in refrigerated drawers in the morgue.
“You think we can call it a man hunt?” asked Roy, to no one in particular.
