Blood Hunter by Brannan Black

I knew it was a dream, but I couldn’t wake up. The nightmare held me tight in its grip, as it had every night for over a week.

I peered around the parked car my partner Smitty and I hid behind. Our target, a scumbag named Ferine, held a struggling woman in his arms. She screamed. And damned if it didn’t look like that bastard bit her neck. I counted at least six guys nearby watching, laughing. With a nod, we jumped out, guns ready.

“Police! Hands in the air!” I put thirty years of cop badassness in my voice. Ferine’s head jerked up, blood dribble from his fangs. Fangs?

“Keep them penned,” Ferine ordered. “I’ll decide what to do with them later. I’m not done here yet.”

They moved so fast all I saw was a blur. A wall of solid muscle hit me like a freight train, twisting me around and slamming me face first against a car. Someone jerked the gun from my hands while the wall of muscle wrenched my arms behind me. That strong son of a bitch held me with no more effort than I’d hold a ten-year-old kid. Another nasty looking brute held Smitty, only he leered down at her. Damn, he had fangs, too. God but they looked real.

We both watched as Ferine shoved the woman to her knees. Looked like she was going to blow him — right up until she just about twisted his balls off. He hit her so hard she skidded several feet away. I tried to jerk loose, to no avail. In dawning horror, we watched Ferine grab her and bite her again. Blood flowed down her neck. Oh God! Damn it to hell! He was drinking from her. I could see his Adam’s apple rising with each gulp. It didn’t take long for her struggles to weaken.

Smitty’s one of the toughest cops I know, but she looked as pale and sick as I felt.

Ferine let the woman’s limp body slide to the ground as the stairwell door slammed open. “You’re too late, book boy. I will have to have a talk with my men. They weren’t supposed to let you go so soon,” Ferine gloated at the tall blond man stalking toward him.

A look of pure cold hate twisted the blond’s face into a feral snarl. “Hard to talk to the dead, Ferine.” A whistle sounded from closer to the entrance to the parking garage. Shadows that might have been people swept into the area. “Segrun, see to my pet.”

A leather clad woman gathered up the woman Ferine’d tossed aside.

The wall of muscle holding me tossed me aside to join his buddies against this new threat, and I scrambled for my gun. Smitty slumped against a car, where the bastard who’d grabbed her had tossed her, like she weighed nothing. I scooted over and felt her neck for a pulse. Good and strong.

I pulled out my cell, hit the speed dial for the precinct and froze. The scene before me looked like something out of a bad horror flick. Ferine’s men fought with claws, fangs and short knives.

The pale blond bombshell and another tall blond man, both in black, fought with swords. It was like watching a street gang mix it up with a couple of ninjas. The ninjas were winning. All of them moved so fast their moves blurred until one of Ferine’s men fell bleeding to the ground. Some turned to piles of ash as they fell.

Three other guys dressed for a party had only their claws and fangs. It didn’t seem to slow them down in the ass kicking department. My phone beeped at me, signal lost. Damn it! Hoping not to draw attention, I pulled Smitty behind a car. If I could get closer to the entrance maybe I could get a signal. Without backup, there was piss little I could do here.

A blur swept me into the side of a car, disarming me again. Son of a bitch! The pale blond woman held me with just as unbreakable a grip as the brute before her.

“Be still. We won’t hurt you. You had a car accident…” Pale blue eyes filled my vision.

* * *

I jerked up in bed, sweating, my heart racing. Damn! It felt so real. I’d been having the same nightmare for a week and each time with more details and a sense of truly having been there. Could it be memories? At the end, was that someone, some vampire, messing with my mind?

Ferine dying in that garage would explain why he and his crew just vanished. I’d been investigating him in connection with my daughter’s disappearance. I thought I had him until my partner and I had that accident. But what if there hadn’t been an accident at all?

If true, it gave me a lead that might just help me find Ashlyn. A desperate Hail Mary pass but it was all I had left.

I’d start near where we had that crash. Maybe I could find that garage. I wasn’t ready to give up, not yet.