Bat Breath Reveals The Identity Of A Vampire's Last Victim

It appears that vampire bats have discovered their equivalent of fast food:

"Vampire bats that live in Latin America have switched to blood meals from cattle instead of from rainforest mammals, ecological physiologists from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, Berlin, the Freie Universität Berlin, the Humboldt Universität zu Berlin and the University of Aberdeen report in the Journal of Comparative Physiology B. They say that the conversion of rainforests ecosystems into livestock producing farmland resulted in the expansion of vampire bat populations in Latin America."

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Free eBooks for US readers

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Rebirth is available from the following online retailers:

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The End... for now

Tom Ryder will return.

I’d like to say thank you very much to everyone who has followed Rebirth as I have been publishing it. It started off as an experiment and I’ve made lots of good friends over the course of the last seven months. I’d love to hear from the rest of you who have followed my story but haven’t yet contacted me. My email address is s.a.mckenzie@gmail.com.

I am currently working on the sequel, which is going to be bigger and better than Rebirth but with the same horror/thriller mix. I’m about 50,000 words into the first draft and making quick progress. I will keep posting semi-regular updates and I’ve got a new online fiction site in the works so please subscribe using the links in the left-hand column to be notified of the latest news, including the publication date for the sequel.

If you enjoyed reading Rebirth, I’d like to ask a favour… I would be very grateful if you could post a short review on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or Lulu. You can find the links dotted around this page.

You can also nominate this blog in the creative writing category for the Manchester Blog Awards 2007. All you need to do is send the link to this page to mancblogawards@googlemail.com.

Thanks again

Until next time…

Rebirth is available from the following online retailers:

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Amazon US - $16.95
Barnes and Noble - $15.25

Chapter 94: The Scientist

Roxy ended the call on her mobile phone without an answer for the fourth time. There had been no contact from any of her allies at The Brotherhood’s regional headquarters. She feared the worst. All the vampires she had trained to infiltrate The Brotherhood must have been killed.

Either the doctor had been killed in the battle or he had escaped, which meant they were starting from scratch again. The vampire community couldn’t know for sure how much the humans knew about the biology of vampires.

Of course, the vampires were doing their own scientific experiments. They had their own agenda, something similar to the humans’ plan but it would be ready to test far sooner.

Roxy lifted herself out of her chair onto a pair of crutches and hobbled down the dark hall to the laboratory door. It would be another day or so before her legs would finish healing completely after such a severe injury. She opened the door and took a step inside, telling the scientist working in the lab not to let her disturb him. She sat down on a stool on the opposite side of the workbench to the scientist and watched him work.

The scientist had two racks of bullets, a pistol, a small paintbrush and a small glass bowl of blood in front of him. One by one, he picked up the bullets, dipped the paintbrush in the bowl and coated them with a thin layer of blood. He then placed each bullet in the second rack to let them dry. When he had finished coating all of the bullets with blood, he picked one up and loaded it into the pistol.

‘Let’s see if it works,’ he said and got to his feet. Roxy followed him out of the door and across the corridor, into the room facing the lab. The room they found themselves in was bare and well lit. The only furniture in the room was a wooden chair, to which a gagged and naked man was tied. His face was soaked with sweat and he was white with fear.

The scientist pointed the pistol at the naked man and pulled the trigger. He flew backwards and struck the wall behind him, falling into a heap on the floor, still tied to the chair. Neither the scientist nor Roxy helped him up. The scientist took a stopwatch out of his pocket and pressed the button to start the timer.

‘How long until he turns, Doctor Forrest?’ asked Roxy.

‘Hopefully under an hour but I’m working on making it more fast-acting,’ he said.

‘When will we be able to execute the next phase of the plan?’

‘The day after tomorrow.’

Rebirth is available from the following online retailers:

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Chapter 93: Emily

Emily Owen was lying in her private cell in the police station. She had been there for two nights in a row. Captain Nash came round from time to time to bring her food and water and to apologise for the broken air conditioning system.

It’s like a sauna in here, she thought to herself as she looked out of the window and wondered how it could still be so hot after the sun had set long ago. She got up and moved around, trying to generate movement in the air but it only made her feel worse. The only other option was putting her in the public cell with all of the recent arrests. She questioned whether that might be preferable, if only for a few minutes to cool down.

She was relieved when the Captain had told her that he had heard her husband was safe and well. She had feared the worst when she heard about the commotion downtown. Somehow she knew he was involved.

Andrew had told her that if she ever fell into the hands of the police then someone would try to collect her. According to him, she would be safer on her own than with the police but if there was no other option; she would have to re-join him. She had been very scared when the police arrived to pick her up but after two days of sitting around she thought her husband was probably just being his usual over-protective self and that she would be fine once he came to collect her.

She had been resistant to Nash’s questioning so far. He had only spent fleeting moments with her though. It seemed to her that he didn’t have a lot of time on his hands and was always rushing off to deal with something else.

There was a knock at the cell door followed by the familiar voice of Captain Nash. He opened the small flap in the metal door and peeked inside. ‘Emily, how are you doing in there?’

‘Same as before, still baking. I must be nearly done now.’

‘Again, I’m very sorry about this. As soon as we have a detective available to question you or we get rid of the suspects in the holding pen, we’ll be able to move you. I don’t think that’s going to happen for a while yet though.’

‘Can you bring me some more water please?’

‘Of course. I’m just going to get your dinner so I’ll bring plenty of water as well.’

Emily thanked Captain Nash and heard his footsteps move away from the cell door. Then she heard something else, something she wasn’t expecting.

The sound of glass shattering.

Then a woman’s scream.

Then a gunshot. Followed by another, and another.

The terrifying sound of gunshots, shouting and screaming seeped into the cell. Emily banged on the door.

‘Captain Nash! Captain Nash! What’s going on?’

There was no answer other than more screams.

She sat down on the bed and curled into a ball in the corner.

Something terrible is happening out there. It is anything to do with Andrew? Is this anything to do with me?

As suddenly as the noise had started, it stopped. There was silence from the corridor outside. The sound of footsteps made their way down the corridor and stopped at the door. The metal flap opened for a second, then slammed shut.

‘Captain Nash?’ Emily asked, her voice cracking with fear.

Again, there was no answer.

A key was placed in the lock and there was a loud clunk as the door swung open and hit the wall.

Emily didn’t recognise the man standing at the door with blood dripping down his face. He was dressed in black with a sword tied to his belt.

There was no one alive in the police station to hear Emily’s screams as he launched himself across the room and dragged her out of the cell.

Rebirth is available from the following online retailers:

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Chapter 92: The Survivor

Night had fallen by the time reinforcements arrived at the base. Three gunships glided in through the mountains and touched down at the entrance. The heavy figure of General Graham stepped out of the leading gunship. Six soldiers jumped out of each gunship, drew their weapons and ran down the ramp into the base.

General Graham marched down the ramp behind them. He had been playing the call he had received over and over again in his mind. Their most remote regional headquarters had been overrun with vampires. Twelve bloodsuckers had somehow got into the base and killed everyone in sight. The only survivor was Captain Stein, who had made the call to national headquarters.

At least, he was a survivor when he made the call. ‘Vampires have infiltrated the base. They killed everyone. Everybody’s dead. The doctor and the test subject are gone. I’m dying. Come quickly.’

That was three hours ago.

The soldiers scattered all over the base. Each soldier reported back on their radio whenever they found a body. The updates came through thick and fast.

A body was lying face down surrounded by a large pool of blood with a sprinkling of ash on top. General Graham had to do a double take as he approached it. The body would have been lying face down if it had a face, but this body’s head was missing. Turning the body over, General Graham saw the stripes on the uniform and instantly knew whose head was missing. Next to the body laid a pair of legs that had been cut off at the knee.

My God, this was a massacre, he thought. There hadn’t been an attack like this for a very long time. The vampires must be working towards something. Something bigger than this. But what?

General Graham picked up his radio and spoke into it. ‘Has anyone found the doctor or the test subject?’ All he got were negative responses, which meant they had either been captured or…

‘Two of the gunships are missing, sir,’ a soldier announced as he approached the general, ‘the inventory states they have three but only one is present outside.’

‘The doctor and the test subject must have escaped,’ said General Graham, ‘It is possible they are in some way responsible for this. The gunship has a tracking device on board. Find it.’

‘Yes sir!’ The soldier turned on his heels to march towards the communications office but noticed something on the floor. There was a lot of blood everywhere but the blood he saw in front of him was leading a trail into the office.

‘What is it, soldier?’ asked General Graham.

‘This trail of blood. I can’t believe I didn’t see it when we got here,’ said the soldier.

‘A survivor?’

‘Maybe.’

‘Lead the way,’ said General Graham, who followed the soldier into the office. The trail of blood went round the desks and stopped at a blood-soaked telephone lying on the ground.

‘This must be where the call was made from,’ said the soldier.

‘That’s right,’ said General Graham, ‘but if Captain Stein had been lying here since he made the call, you would expect there to be a big pool of blood. The floor’s dry apart from a few spots.’

They both scanned their eyes over the floor and around the room. Where was the body that had left this trail of blood? Then General Graham felt something lightly tap him on the shoulder. He turned around but no one was there. He wiped his shoulder with his hand and looked at it.

Blood. Where…

Very slowly, General Graham raised his eyes and looked to the ceiling. He took a step back and exclaimed ‘Oh my God!’ The soldier turned round and looked up.

There was Captain Stein, seemingly stuck to the ceiling, looking down at them with vacant eyes and a ghostly white face. He didn’t have any legs below the knees. Captain Stein opened his mouth to show his long pointed canine teeth and opened his arms out wide then dropped from the ceiling onto the soldier’s back, clawing at his neck with his long, sharp finger nails.

Before he could sink his teeth into the soldier’s neck, General Graham delivered a hard boot to the body of Captain Stein, who let go of the soldier and landed in the corner of the room. General Graham and the soldier both raised their guns and the vampire stopped moving.

‘Don’t move, Captain!’ the general shouted, ‘Are you okay, soldier?’

‘I’m fine. Should we shoot him?’

General Graham first instinct was to give the order, but he looked into the eyes of the vampire. Was there any sense in turning Captain Stein into just another pile of ash?

‘No,’ he said, ‘he was useless as a Captain but he may yet be of some use to us as a vampire.’

Rebirth is available from the following online retailers:

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Chapter 91: Escape

Private Skinner hit the button to reverse the lock-down and we made our way out of the base. We ran across the summit of the mountain to a helicopter. I could feel my skin start to boil in the blazing sunshine as we jumped on board.

‘Jesus Christ,’ Agent Simpson exclaimed, ‘look at your skin!’

The doctor looked at my face, which felt like I had been lying in the sun all day. In reality I had been in direct sunlight for about thirty seconds.

‘Lie down, Detective,’ said Doctor Owen, ‘I need to give you another shot.’

Private Skinner sat down in the cockpit and started the helicopter’s engine. His face did not appear to have been affected by the sun as much as mine. We lifted off and the doctor plunged the needle into my arm. I wondered if the treatment would make any difference.

Have I gone too far down the path to turn back?

In a few seconds I felt the treatment start to take hold and the familiar burning started to spread all over my body. Trying to ignore the pain, I reflected on my actions.

I had new powers. I could fly through the air. I had super-strength. I had psychic abilities.

In the hangar, the human side of me had been unable to control my actions. I had become an unstoppable killer with a lust for blood. I didn’t want these powers though, not if it meant I had to feed on human blood to stay alive.

I realised the human community wasn’t much better. The Brotherhood had become corrupt and had an agenda of hate. The only chance I had was to stick with these three people. They were good people who wanted the best for me and the rest of the human and vampire races. I felt my new powers drain from my body and tried to be hopeful for the future as I drifted into unconsciousness.

But somewhere deep inside me, a new instinct remained. It wanted me to keep these powers. It wanted me to join my new brothers and sisters. It wanted me to complete my rebirth as a vampire and stay that way.

Forever.

Rebirth is available from the following online retailers:

Amazon UK - £7.99
Amazon US - $16.95
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