Nasferas: The Begotten

35

"What in the galaxies is that thing?" Dram asked.

"I can't believe it." Treylor shook his head in silence.

Davidar had the same question. "You've seen the creature before?"

Treylor nodded. "But this is impossible." He interlaced his thick fingers in the creature's white mane and pulled its head back.

Its eyes looked human except for the red tint to its irises. The nose had ripples of thick skin on either side and it had an upturned snout. Fangs jutted from its lower jaw, which nearly touched its upper lips. The rest of the body had those rugged hairs all over. To Davidar, they felt like pine needles.

Treylor picked up the body. "We need to examine this back at the ship." He darted into the trees and disappeared.

"Amazing. He didn't tell us what it was." Dram wiped the blood from the sword on the leg of his flight suit. "I'll be keeping this."

"What in the seven hells happened here?" Jimmy Boy called from several yards away.

Davidar had heard him as he cautiously moseyed behind them.

Jimmy Boy leaned down, dipped his finger in the creature's blood, and smelled it. "Holy shit! That ain't human." With a handful of dirt, he cleaned his finger. "That's worse than day-old deer guts, damn. Where's the body?"

"Oh, it's ..." Dram began.

"Down the hill." Davidar interrupted.

Jimmy Boy cocked his eye at Dram. "You okay, kiddo?"

Dram stuck his finger in one of the holes and stretched the suit. Beneath the blood-soaked material was pristine skin.

"Must have been the guy's blood." Davidar hoped to throw Jimmy off the scent this time.

"Mmm, hmm." He knew Jimmy Boy wasn't buying it.

Dram closed his shirt. "We should be getting back to the truck, yeah?"

Jimmy Boy hiked his camouflaged boot onto the stump and rested his arms on his knee. He spat out a wad of black goo. "You two better tell me exactly what the hell is going on here. I ain't letting you near those kids until you tell me who you are."

Davidar shook his head. "You wouldn't understand. If we tell you who we are, you'd get frightened and run away. We've been shown how your kind treats ours."

Jimmy slapped his hand on his knee and smiled. His teeth had the same black gunk on them. With the finger he used to smell the blood, he scooped at his bottom lip and flicked the remnants of whatever was onto the ground.

"All I wanna know is the damn truth. Humans can be such short-sighted bastards. I knew that wasn't a Russian or European spacecraft." He sighed. "But I guess you ain't here to hurt us since you killed the one that got poor Brett."

The truck roared to life in the distance. "If they aren't back here in two minutes, we're leaving them," Jason said.

Go with the children. We will handle things here.

Yes, mother.

"The children are leaving. We need to get back down to the truck." Davidar looked one more time at the puddle of blood. Snow turned to steam with every consecutive drop. The sun peaked through the dense forest. He followed a beam down to a cliff. The same cliff Dram and the killer had fought.

"Jimmy Boy." Dram stepped in front of the man, blocking his way back to the truck.

"Yup." He fiddled with the cigarette behind his ear.

"Would you kindly not tell the kids what you learned about us? I mean, we don't want to frighten them more than they already are."

"I guess. I'll keep it quiet for a bit. If you two jack monkeys promise not to mess with my mind or do anything to harm those kids and Marcie. Got it?"

Dram nodded. "Yeah, okay. I promise."

Davidar held out his hand. "I promise as well."

Jimmy Boy took Davidar's hand and shook it with conviction. "Okay then. We got a dead kid to clean up and tons of explaining to do. Marcie's gonna shit bricks."

They followed Jimmy Boy back. The kids had wrapped Brett in a sleeping bag with the top tied shut and put him in the bed of the truck. Jimmy Boy took Brett's spot in the back seat with Matt and Eve. Davidar, Dram, and Dustin sat with their backs to the cab.

Spots of light landed on his sleeve. He pulled up the material and touched the glow on his skin. The area under felt warm and soft. With the nail of his index finger, he pushed against the skin until a drop of blood dripped down his arm. When he moved his arm out of the light, the small tear in his epidermis stitched back together. It's the reason the creature could nearly kill Dram on the cliff. They had an allergy on Earth. One which would never go away. It rises in the east . . . sets in the west.

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