Reign of Blood (The Vampires of Vegas Book 1)

Chapter Seven

The day had yielded nothing and my patience had grown extra thin. I hadn't even hit any feral vampire hives. I had managed to dispatch several lone ones, heading toward me in the bowels of the smaller casinos. Apparently, these were easier to break into for them than the larger casinos. Still, I was more frustrated than ever and my head ached with a throb that surged through my temples as I ended the day's search, driving away toward home, once again without my family.

The drive was even harder this time than it had been the prior evening. As I drove, feelings of failure and disappointment stabbed at me like daggers in my chest. The pavement seemed hypnotizing as the sun's light drained away over the horizon. I was leaving a little later than I had wanted but my desperation had grown to a fever pitch as I had frantically searched as much as I could in the last hours of daylight. Slashing down the ferals I had encountered left me more empty than satisfied. I just wanted to see my mother and brother's faces again–longing to see their smiles and listen to their contagious laughs and giggles in the loneliness of the night that awaited me.

Pulling up to the house in the mountains filled me with dread. Another night alone, another night left wondering what had happened to what was left of my family. Would I ever receive the answers to the questions that seems to run marathons through my head as I lay in bed at night, praying that the alarms would trip and it would be them banging on the door to come in? The deep searing pain I felt as I wearily peeled my equipment and weapons off my body, letting them clank onto the cold concrete floor inside the cell that I called home, ate away at my brain.

I showered the dirt and dried vampiric blood off my skin, temporarily easing the soreness of the day's activities. The water was amazing, hot and steaming. I remembered how absolutely thankful we had been to find that this underground refuge had a propane feed with a solar heater back up to heat water. Hot water, electricity–things I had taken for granted before–readily available only here. It had truly been a godsend.

I fell into my bed, barely pulling the sheets over my body before succumbing to the lure of sleep, so deep that for once, the nightmarish dreams eluded me.

***

Cracking my eyes open, I felt a sudden overwhelming anxiety that captured my breath in my throat. It was early morning and my body felt like it had been run over by truck. Sitting up, my joints popped and creaked as my muscles burned in protest. All the running and searching had been more than I had done in a while and had left me in a state of exhaustion.

I had to get up, though I did not want to. I could feel the desolation creeping into my mind as the urge to give up seemed to grow with each passing moment. To stay in bed and continue to sleep would be just fine with me, and this was unacceptable. Shaking my head, I tried to regain my focus. I had to keep moving, searching and searching until we were all safe again. I could not let this depression overwhelm me and threaten to freeze me into despair.

I quickly ate breakfast, gulping down an energy bar and some bottled green tea, and dressed for the day. I slipped on some dark jeans and strapped a machete to my right thigh. I stretched as I fit the weapons on. I hung a hatchet on an axe loop at my left side, leaving it at that. I was going to go light today. My body was not into hauling too many supplies and from the experience of the search yesterday, I wouldn't need as much as I thought I would. I checked my flashlights and slipped them into my many belt compartments. I filled the remaining pouches with water and snacks.

I finished off by pulling my hair into a tight bun that held at the nape of my neck. Done, I noticed again how gaunt I looked in the mirrors of the bathroom. I looked thin, but the sun had slowly burned its rays across my skin, giving it a slightly reddish, light brown hue. I'd forgotten to put sunscreen on the day before and groaned at the slight tingle of pain that emanated from the burn. I grabbed for a tube of the thick cream to slather on. The sun was intense here and a severe sunburn would be much more painful than sore muscles.