"Roar!"
*Bang!*
"WTF?"
George stared in brief disbelief at the vampire. It had taken a point-blank blast of buckshot to the chest, tearing its flesh open, yet it hadn't staggered back even half a step. Instead, it was still lunging directly toward him.
The next second, George discarded the shotgun. Reaching behind his back, he swiftly chambered his M4 assault rifle. Hearing Gwen's frantic shouts over the radio, he lined up the sights right on the blurring, ghost-like head of the creature and squeezed the trigger.
*Trrat—*
*Bam!*
*Roar!*
The vampire jerked its head aside, splitting into a blur of afterimages. With a sharp *smack*, it knocked George's M4 off target. Then, glancing at Hank and Erin up ahead, it lunged forward, grabbed George, and dragged him in front of itself as a human shield.
"Come on!" the vampire roared at Hank and Erin. It then pivoted George toward Locke's plateau, overlapping its body almost perfectly with George's.
"Shoot if you have the balls!"
Hank and Erin exchanged a tense look. Down on the ground, Gwen panicked.
"Dad!"
Up on the ridge, Locke narrowed his eyes, tracking George right in the center of his crosshairs.
The last guy who dared to play the human-shield card with him already had flowers blooming over his grave.
Forget a human shield—even if a target hid inside a secure vault, the moment he triggered his Gun Kata skills, he could fire a round straight into the sky and the bullet would cruise like an automated, self-guided tracking missile to find its mark.
But that was the Peerless Assassin, not Locke. If Locke were here with his signature sunglasses on, those five vampires wouldn't have even made it down the mountain.
'What a pity,' Locke thought, letting out a quiet sigh as his finger rested on the trigger.
Beside him, Gwen looked bewildered.
"Locke?"
What was the meaning of this? Was this some twisted case of mutual hostility? Her dad wanted Locke to disappear, so was Locke trying to use this perfect opportunity to make her dad disappear in a literal, physical sense?
That was definitely not okay. Gwen shook her head like a spinning top.
"Locke..."
Below, the vampire's sharp, grating voice cut through the air.
"Come out! If you don't come out, I'll kill him!"
"...Locke?"
"Yeah."
Locke kept his eyes on the vampire, which was shouting while hiding so cleanly behind George that not even a shoulder was exposed. Hearing the nervous, worried edge in Gwen's voice, he clicked the radio on.
"Don't do anything reckless."
Hiding behind George as a flesh-and-blood shield, the vampire's gaze dropped to the ground in front of them, where a radio was emitting static and fragmented voices.
"You..." Stimulated by the heavy scent of blood around them, the vampire was growing visibly ravenous, but it retained enough sanity to know George was its only ticket out. It nudged George with a sharp fingernail.
"Pick it up. Slowly."
George looked at the radio a short distance away, then at Hank and Erin, who had lowered their weapons and raised their hands to signal they wouldn't move.
"Hurry up."
"Alright, don't lose your head."
Nudged forward, George felt the suffocating stench of blood washing over him from behind. He spoke quickly to keep the creature calm. Coerced by the vampire, he slowly began to crouch down with it to pick up the radio.
Right at that moment, George subtly tilted his head up and caught a split-second glint of light from Locke's direction. He shook his head minutely, and then, in a flash, yanked his head sharply to the right.
"You're dead!" Noticing the movement, the vampire bared its fangs in a murderous rage.
But Locke was faster. Almost the exact millisecond George began jerking his head to the right, Locke pulled the trigger. With a heavy *thud*, a Winchester round howled out of the muzzle. The instant George completed his head tilt—
*Splat!*
It was like a watermelon bursting apart, spraying dark fluid everywhere.
*Bang! Bang! Bang!*
*Trrat! Trrat! Trrat!*
Down below, Hank and Erin kicked into motion, swiftly scooping up their dropped weapons. Taking advantage of George rolling away like a tumbling gourd, they unleashed a torrential hail of bullets onto the vampire. Though its head was already gone, the body was still standing, and it was thoroughly riddled with lead.
Three seconds later, just as the metallic clicks of empty chambers echoed, the vampire finally erupted with black blood and crashed backward with a heavy *thud*.
"Dad..." Gwen's adrenaline was pumping so hard she practically needed a medical monitor. Seeing that George was safe, she immediately turned and sprinted down the mountain path.
Locke secured his Remington 700 in two seconds flat and followed close behind. If Gwen got too frantic and took a spill down the slope, that would be bad.
...
Soon, they gathered by the shore of Leica Lake, which now looked like the aftermath of a brutal massacre, drenched in blood.
"Dad!" Gwen flew into George's arms just as he was getting up from the ground, her voice a mix of joy and lingering terror.
"Thank god! Are you okay?"
George managed a small smile and shook his head.
"I'm fine."
Nearby, Erin finished reloading and replacing her magazine. She looked at Locke as he walked over, dangling the Remington 700, and nodded at him with a look of deep appreciation and respect.
Hank slapped Locke on the shoulder, praising him with genuine admiration.
"Incredible nerve, kid." If it had been him, Hank knew he wouldn't have had the confidence to take that shot.
Locke smiled politely.
"I actually had my eyes closed. I was too nervous and fired by mistake."
Hank: "..."
Having just assured his daughter that he wasn't hurt, George heard the comment and his mouth began to twitch violently. Gwen heard it too, immediately throwing Locke a glaring look before turning back to George.
"Dad, don't listen to him. He's just joking."
George obviously knew it was a joke. But having just escaped the jaws of death, his brain wasn't quite ready to process dark humor. For a split second, he had almost taken Locke's words literally.
'This wild boar really wants to find Gwen a nicer stepdad.' George felt a surge of shock and anger at the thought. But as the adrenaline gradually faded, he managed to rationalize the dry humor.
"Good job."
"Thank you."
Locke cradled the Remington 700 in his arms, offering a polite smile in response to George's clipped, emotionally suppressed attempt at gratitude.
In his heart, Locke sighed.
'What an absolute waste of a perfect setup.'
Even if it had been a "one shot, two kills" scenario, it would have been a net win. It was a bit of a shame. Missing an opportunity like that meant he might have to wait a very long time for a similar chance to present itself.
Just then, a low, guttural snarl echoed from nearby. The group snapped their attention toward the sound.
One of the wounded, surviving deputies from the neighboring county was lying on the ground, but his entire body had suddenly begun to shake and convulse violently. Something seemed to be writhing inside his mouth, struggling to burst out.
On his neck, a puncture wound was glaringly visible.
"Oh my god!"
"Erin, get the rope!"
"On it!"
Locke grabbed Gwen by the hand and took a few steps back, keeping his role crystal clear—if he didn't need to step in, he wouldn't. His priority was simply protecting Gwen.
Amid a series of furious, beast-like snarls, George and the other two completed their work. When they stepped back, the deputy was bound hand and foot like a cooked shrimp, his limbs securely tied together using the heavy ropes originally brought along for hauling wild boars.
By now, the deputy's transformation was complete. His fangs were fully extended, his eyes a solid, crimson red, driven entirely by a primal thirst for blood with no trace of human consciousness left. He thrashed against his bonds, staring at George and Hank while drooling with naked hunger.
"Is this... a vampire?"
"But it's broad daylight!"
The group looked up at the blazing sun overhead, then back down at the vampire, whose skin seemed to give off a faint, diamond-like sheen under the light. They fell into a stunned silence.
George was completely bewildered.
'There are vampires that don't fear the sun?'. That didn't make sense.
George had been conducting a secret investigation into a particular case that, much like the Peerless Assassin, had become an obsession of his.
He strongly suspected a certain nightclub was a vampire haven, but that establishment never opened during the day; it only operated after nightfall, and the patrons who stayed over only ever left after dusk.
Did two distinct species of vampires exist—one vulnerable to sunlight and one immune?
Beside him, Gwen stared wide-eyed at the transformed deputy, taking in the diamond-like sheen and the sharp fangs.
"A real vampire... Locke, look!"
Locke hummed in response.
'Just a little bat.' What was there to be surprised about? He could turn into a bat himself right now if he wanted to—a perk he had suddenly discovered after dropping three of them earlier.
Gwen seemed to strike upon a thought, her eyes flashing.
"Vampires actually exist. Locke, do you think if someone gets bitten by him, they'll become like him? Immortal and eternally young?"
Locke snapped out of his thoughts and looked at Gwen, feeling a bit amused. Come to think of it, he rarely saw Gwen wear makeup; even when she did, it was always very light.
Gwen blinked. "If Dr. Connors were here, he'd be thrilled. He'd have this vampire shipped to his lab overnight to be sliced up for research."
'No, he wouldn't,' Locke thought.
'Dr. Connors is destined to become a lizard, and this is a bat. One is a reptile, the other is a mammal of the order Chiroptera. They belong to completely different species; they wouldn't have anything in common.'
Gwen's eyes lit up as another idea struck her. She unzipped her backpack, produced a small glass vial, and held it out to George.
"Dad, help me pull out one of his fangs. And it'd be great if you could harvest some blood too."
Locke felt a sudden jolt. He had almost forgotten that Gwen's major was biology.
George stared at the glass vial Gwen was holding out, then at her expectant, pleading expression, and finally at the writhing, shrimp-tied vampire. He was entirely speechless.
"..."
***
Finally we hit 500 stones this week.
3 bonuses as promised, love you guys for the support 💕
See you tomorrow
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Read 40 Chapters early on P-atreon.com/Redestro666