Midnight Shadows

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  ImaJinn Books

  www.imajinnbooks.com

  Copyright ©2001 by Nancy Gideon

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  NOTICE: This work is copyrighted. It is licensed only for use by the original purchaser. Making copies of this work or distributing it to any unauthorized person by any means, including without limit email, floppy disk, file transfer, paper print out, or any other method constitutes a violation of International copyright law and subjects the violator to severe fines or imprisonment.

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  Prologue

  Hide.

  Instinct had kept him alive and unchanged for a century. Quinton Alexander knew he had to escape Seattle before enemies, new and old, found him. A creature of little courage and much craft, he recognized the wisdom of burrowing in like a tick until danger passed and memory faded. Time was his best friend, and distance would be a close second.

  But another instinct, deep and pulsing, drew him out perhaps foolishly on the foggy night.

  Hunger.

  The desire to feed pushed safety from the forefront. Need writhed within him. Emptiness withered his veins and roared in his belly, demanding appeasement in a loud, agonizing voice. First he would feed, then he would flee.

  And once safely in his hiding place, he would scheme. Even if it took decades, he would have his revenge upon those who had out smarted him and forced him from this comfortable existence into exile once more.

  He hunted in shadow, slipping along the silent predawn streets from doorway to alleyway, searching, sniffing like a hound trained for a particular scent. He paused, inhaling deeply.

  There.

  Rich, warm, life-sustaining.

  Human blood.

  Perched like a dark bird of prey upon a recessed stoop, he watched her hurry toward a parked car, fishing in her purse for keys and cursing softly under her breath. She'd come from the hospital. The acrid bite of that clinical atmosphere clung to her, a bitter condiment to spice his meal. It reminded him of his most recent prison. He almost let her pass. Almost. He had no time to be picky. So he continued to watch and wait for opportunity, knowing it would come soon. She rushed out of weariness not worry. After all, the city slept securely, believing the serial killer stalking their streets to be a threat no longer. And they'd be right ... after he finished here.

  Impatient in his thirst, he swooped down upon his victim. There was no time for the luxury of the cat-and-mouse play he usually enjoyed. Just eat and run.

  She never knew what hit her. Her keys dangled from her vehicle's door. Her purse lay open, its contents strewn upon the ground while he feasted deeply, carelessly draining the life away from this mortal who meant less than nothing to him. Good to the last drop.

  Bloated and slightly intoxicated by his overindulgence, he sat on the curb, reveling in his sated satisfaction. And for that fleeting moment, he was vulnerable and unaware that he was not alone.

  The sound of a footstep startled him from his lethargy. Suddenly, a brilliant flood of light bathed him and the empty shell lying in the gutter at his feet. His first thought was the police.

  His second was Frank Cobb.

  With bloodied fangs horribly exposed, he faced the intruder from the coil of a crouch, ready to spring, yet unable to identify the threat beyond that blinding light.

  "I've been looking for you."

  It wasn't Cobb. A relief.

  "You've found me, unlucky for you,” he responded with a promising hiss.

  The soft chuckle perplexed him.

  "Oh, I would say very lucky for the both of us. You see I have a proposition for you, one that will prove beneficial to both you and me."

  "Why should I make bargains?” He grew bolder now that the immediate surprise and danger had faded. Coming out of his crouch, he struggled to see beyond the glare to the owner of the unfamiliar voice.

  But just because he didn't recognize the speaker, didn't mean the speaker didn't recognize him.

  "Because it's in your best interest to listen. I know what you are, and I have no fear of you."

  A shape appeared, haloed by the light behind it. Alexander howled in dismay, turning away as the holy cross burned his eyes. Slowly, he glanced back, relieved to find the offensive tool was gone. If his unidentified assailant meant to capture or kill him, the crucifix would still be wielded to hold him at helpless bay. So if not to trap or destroy him, what did this human have in mind? Clever thoughts working now in search of an advantage, he relaxed his cornered stance.

  "Who are you?” he demanded. “What do you want? You must want something or you wouldn't have come looking for me."

  "I'm a friend. A friend who is going to take you away from all your troubles here and then make us both very, very wealthy."

  Slowly, the vampire smiled.

  "Tell me more."

  Chapter One

  Some Indian tribes in the Amazon had a hundred words for green.

  To the three men chopping their way through the tangle of squirming vines, only one term applied.

  Green hell.

  Hot. Steaming. Hell.

  Though nothing moved, the heavy, wet air held the sense of stealthy activity, scurrying just out of the line of sight, in the impenetrable canopies overhead, beneath the dense, umbrella-like palms concealing the decayed forest floor. A memory of life, a shadow of what had passed by before or perhaps now lay in wait within that verdant, unrelieved green. Something watching, something dangerous, something stirring a cold shiver of sweat under damp shirts and hat bands as the trio continued to toil. But greed overcame harbingers of dread. They worked faster, harder, focusing on their goal until foliage ripped away to reveal their reward.

  "It's here,” one of them breathed in a hush of avaricious amazement.

  Spurred on by the discovery, they continued to chop and tear and pull and bare the ancient walls the jungle sought to bury. Stepping back at last, they regarded the fruits of their labor, panting with an excitement tempered by inbred superstition.

  "Who goes in?” the eldest asked of no one in particular.

  "You go, Mano. You are the smallest."

  "And the bravest, no?” Teeth as rotted as the spongy matter beneath their feet flashed in the swarthy face. “Just make sure you warn me if anyone comes before you take to the lowlands like a pair of capybaras."

  Not caring for the too-accurate likening to those sheep-sized rodents, the eldest struck his spade against the ancient mortar with offended zeal.

  Powder sifted through the vines.

  They went to work again, gouging between stones that had stood as protective sentinels since pre-Columbian time. But old and worn away by the seeping dampness, the rocks could not hold against this latest assault. First one, then another rolled away, and a narrow path into darkness beckoned, promising secrets to the bold.

  Mano shrugged out of his pack. There'd be no room for anything except his flashlight and his small hand pick in the pitch-black tunnel ahead. A rope was quickly tied to his jute belt and knotted. If he was victorious, he would use the rope to haul in bags to steal away his illegal harvest. If he encountered something more sinister than a dead ruler laid out in his tomb, the rope would be his lifeline, dragging him back to safety. He made sure the knot was tight, then with a nod to the expectant pair, he wriggled through the tiny opening into the unknown.

  He'd inched his way for a cramped ten feet when he met with another stone barrier. Not discouraged, he went to work on it, chipping in the confined quarters with his hand tool until he had a groove notched between the stones. He cleaned the loose debris away then caught his breath as his fingertips brushed against something foreign embedded within the sealing mud. He shone the dim light on the golf-ball sized pellet nestled in his palm. A b
ead left between the stones. A pearl of pure gold for the owner of the tomb to take with him to the afterlife.

  Now they would be Mano's reward for going first.

  Quickly, he scooped out several more beads, tucking them into the pockets of his chinos, then he went back to work, driven by the need to know what riches lay beyond. If the size of the beads was any indication, wealth beyond imagination.

  And he could imagine quite a lot.

  He squirmed his way through the next opening, dropping several feet down onto an earthen floor that had last hosted foot traffic in 600 BC. Dusting himself off, Mano straightened then directed his light down either corridor. The passageway gave no clues as to destination. Picking his left, he started down the narrow tunnel while the sun began to set on his nervous friends waiting outside. He gave no thought to their trepidation or the time as he abruptly came upon an arched opening that left him gaping in awe.

  The chamber was huge, soaring upward like a cathedral before narrowing into a sort of chimney through which the fading daylight filtered in a weak downward stream. Standing in that fragile pool of natural light was a creature carved in native stone, a creature so fearsome and fantastical that Mano was distracted from the large emeralds inset for its eyes, from the hammered collar beaten from solid gold. He sucked a fearful breath, tasting the sour, almost acrid odor of the burial temple laced with his own tangy sweat.

  The creature sat on powerful animal-like haunches, clawed hands gripping upthrust knees. A ridge of spines was cut down its back, and its face was lifted as if baying at the circle of sky so far out of reach overhead. The human features were pulled back from a great gaping maw, exposing hideous fangs in that wide-open mouth. And from the corners of that mouth, seeded like glittering droplets of blood, were rubies by the dozens, trickling downward.

  Even as a shudder rippled through him, Mano's gaze fixed on a pattern upon the floor. More rubies just there for the picking? Lust for treasure pushed away his caution just as night overwhelmed the last of the day, plunging the chamber into complete blackness. Using his flashlight to direct him, Mano crossed to the foot of the monolithic being, sweeping the beam in search of gemstones. But what he found wasn't rubies, it was the faded brilliance of dried blood.

  Someone else had been here. Recently.

  Did that mean they were too late to claim the treasure?

  As disappointment and dread warred within him, Mano felt a faint breath of movement behind him. Thinking one of his friends had decided not to wait after all, he turned, eager to share what he had found.

  But whatever words he sought to say strangled upon a fateful scream.

  By the time the sound reached the two waiting restlessly in the jungle, it was barely louder than a whimper but still enough to make the hair quiver on their napes. The rope snapped taut in their hands, and they began to draw upon it, slowly at first, then more frantically as they puzzled over what weighed down the other end. Gold? Carved stone antiquities that would fetch a small fortune from their supplier? The rattling in the tunnel grew louder, and their anticipation increased apace. But what emerged from the dark cavern was a pair of worn boots bound by their rope at the ankles.

  "Mano!"

  They dragged him from of the hole but, from the way he flopped to the ground limp and motionless, they knew it was already too late. Kneeling down, they shone their lanterns onto features frozen in nameless horror and eyes round with the recognition of impending death. If his expression wasn't enough to send them fleeing into the forest, it was the cause of his demise that came nipping at their heels: a hound from that Green Hell.

  Mano Mendes's shirt was black with blood from where his throat had been torn wide open.

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  Mid-1970s in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas, sightings of what may have been a condor are linked to a rash of mutilated cattle. Blood was removed to the last drop.

  Early 1970s in Brownsville, Texas, a rancher finds a bull dead with no blood around it and no tracks.

  March 11, 1995, Ornocovis: eight sheep are found dead with three unexplained marks or punctures in the chest, through which they are completely drained of blood.

  August 1995 in Canvanas, Puerto Rico a name is given to a legend. The Chupacabra is blamed for the deaths of approximately 150 animals.

  December 7, 1995, near Guanica, Puerto Rico chickens and cows suffer unusually bloodless deaths.

  December 18, 1995, Puerto Rico, animals found dead from a single puncture mark and drained of blood. The local tabloid suggests giant vampire bats infiltrated the island in a cargo shipment from South America.

  January 4, 1996 in Isabella County, Michigan eight calves are discovered frozen and dead, skinned from head to hooves.

  March 1996 in rural Miami 40 animals are killed. A woman reported a dog-like figure rising up onto hind legs with two short hands in the air.

  May 2, 1996, Rio Grande Valley, South Texas, pet goat dead with three puncture wounds in its neck: the telltale marks of the Chupacabra. On the same day in Juarez, Mexico, small mammals killed by tall “animal-like” being with three-toed feet and hands, on haunches with forearms at chest level like a kangaroo. A row of spikes or feathers project from the back of its head and down its back that glow with their own light.

  May 3, 1996, a rash of similar sightings in eight states in Mexico: bat-like creatures sucking goats dry. Numerous animals drained of blood, dead cows and sheep.

  May 9, 1996 at 2:00 a.m., a Latino family has its front door opened, and a creature with scaly skin, clawed hands, red eyes and a row of spines from its skull down its back “mumbled and gestured."

  May 10, in Florida reports of a Chupacabra among Hispanics.

  May 12, Chiapas, Mexico, 28 rams found dead with puncture marks.

  Chupacabra. New Jersey Devil, Spring Heeled Jack. Large, slanted, glowing red eyes, Simian-like face, spikes on its head and back, three-toed foot, seen to hop or fly, leaves puncture wounds resembling the classic vampire bite. Speculation that the Chupacabras might be from outer space.

  Fiction. Folly.

  Relieved, Sheba Reynard set down her pencil and stared at the time line and the huge stack of notes she'd meticulously gathered since her arrival in Puerto Rico almost seven months earlier.

  She'd done thorough investigative research, approaching the topic more like a scandal journalist than the scientist she was. Taking advantage of her fluent Spanish, she'd gone beyond the basic records checking, taking her questions to the people who crossed themselves at dusk and prayed their livestock would survive the night. It was easy to laugh at their nonsensical stories ... until looking into the somber faces, into the haunted eyes of those who believed, who'd seen, firsthand, what the island's favorite legend had done. These weren't the people who created colorful web sites or hawked cute tee shirts selling the Chupacabra as Puerto Rico's answer to the cuddly ET. They'd gone into their fields, their corrals, their barns to discover unimaginable horrors. They had no interest in feeding the media frenzy or joining fan clubs that glorified the startling and inexplicable deaths of their animals, which came without warning, without clues. They lived in terror, victims of the unknown, prisoners of their own ignorance.

  Chupacabara. An invention of superstition. The product of an unlearned mind. The perpetuation of a media hungry for sensation and a marketing tool for those eager to capitalize from misfortune that hadn't touched them personally. Those were the things this creature was. What it was was myth not monster.

  There were no monsters.

  Behind the hysteria and rampant fear, there was a manipulation of the truth born of rumor and legend. That's why the Puerto Rican government had supplied her with a grant. Find the truth. She'd dug; she'd snooped; she'd listened; she'd sympathized. But what she'd never done was believed.

  And on the bottom of her notes, she jotted a short, blunt sentence: The work of angry neighbors, a jilted lover and mostly likely, a stray dog. A logical conclusion to years of fright and panic. Just reality onc
e the trappings of religion and legend were stripped away. Sheba had more respect for the latter than the former, but both she considered dangerous follies.

  Case closed.

  Finally.

  Wearily, she rubbed at her eyes and wondered what time it was. Hours, days, weeks and now months had escaped her notice while on this latest quest for truth. A hoax. A coincidence. Nothing mysterious or inexplicable. Satisfied with her answer, she could return to ... what? What did she have when not out chasing myths and disproving beliefs? What did she have besides a battered suitcase and the reputation of being a ruthless faith-basher?

  She'd been out of touch with civilization too long, or such ruminations wouldn't bother her. She had a good life, a full and meaningful profession earning respect from her peers and the gratitude of those she liberated from their own misconceptions.

  She provided a useful and necessary service.

  And once she'd had a long shower, she'd remember that.

  Gathering her notes and the dozens of audiotapes she'd made over the past months, she deposited them into a large portfolio, closing the flap the way she'd meant to close her mind to the remembered awe and terror in those voices, those eyes.

  There are no monsters.

  Hadn't she proved it, again?

  When would it be enough for her to begin to believe, for her to have a dreamless night's sleep?

  Perhaps tonight while the sense of victory was sweet and strong.

  Now that her almost zealous focus was gone, Sheba glanced about and noticed in some surprise that she barely recognized her surroundings. She'd lived out of this small, nearly airless room for more than half a year, yet the only thing she'd brought to it was the big suitcase that had toured the globe with her. She'd never looked at the childlike rendering of a still-life hanging over the hard double bed. She hadn't recoiled at the garish colors of the bedspread that repeated in horrifying boldness in the splashy pattern on the drapes. Nor did she know what she would see if she opened those curtains to look beyond. What was outside the window, anyway? A view of the sprawling city? Could she see the jeweled waters of the Carribean? She'd never taken the time to look ... or to care. This place was like any other, a base to which she would return each night to surround herself with the stuff of legends. Her safe retreat from out of which she would battle ignorance using knowledge and logic as her crusader's sword, slicing through superstition, rending apart traditions to get at the bare bones of fact. When possessed by her passion for truth, the world around her ceased to exist. And most of the time, that didn't bother her.