“That’s right,” MacCready said. “I was studying them when one of your local thugs decided to plug me with a dart.”
“Save your zoology story, Captain MacCready,” Wolff said with a smirk. “We know why you were sent here.”
MacCready managed a smirk of his own.
The German continued. “In any event, we are men of science and this is a situation that calls for . . . adaptation. As such, I am making you a new offer. Help us hunt down the creatures that killed my men. Help us find and destroy these blut kinder.”
“Or?”
“Or this morning, instead of accompanying us, Sergeant Schr?dinger will turn you over to the very same locals who have already found you to be such an exceptional dart target.”
This time MacCready feigned uneasiness (which was pretty damn easy to do). But in reality they both knew that Wolff’s offer was a no-brainer. And in fact it was exactly what he had been hoping for. It was his only chance. Even if I can’t make a clean escape after leading them to the draculae, maybe I can somehow get the word out to Hendry before I die.
Wolff let out a short laugh that MacCready found unnerving, considering its source. “I know exactly what you are thinking,” the colonel said. “So, yes, help us to track down and eliminate these pests and, who knows . . . perhaps you will escape.”
Perhaps I will, asshole, MacCready thought, but he allowed Wolff the last word.
“Then we will hunt you.”
Even though the temperature inside the dead tree was a perfect 104 degrees Fahrenheit (with a humidity of nearly 100 percent), the mother found it impossible to sleep. Her movements eventually woke the child, who scrambled over to hang by her side. She responded by regurgitating a small measure of biped blood from the pouchlike portion of her stomach, where it had remained undigested—an emergency reserve system that characterized all vampire bat species. The child instinctively leaned in. Vibrating with anticipation, he drew nearer, face-to-face, and fed from the pool in her mouth. When the child had finished, he pulled away and hung silently, drifting back toward sleep. Not a single drop had fallen into the dark cavity that stretched below them.
The mother knew that the bipeds had become more difficult to hunt and their strange behavior was a clear indicator that they were now aware of her family’s presence. The bipeds no longer walked the forest at night. But more alarming than this was the scent of fear that spread from their strange nests into the surrounding trees.
There was another problem that kept the mother awake long into the pre-dawn hours. She was losing control of the twins. While this was a normal part of their maturation process, the unexpected presence of the intruders in such alarming numbers was making the twins’ newly acquired independence even more difficult to direct. Their latest encounter with the bipeds on the hillside above the river had been the turning point, and now her maternal instincts had led her to a decision.
She emitted a series of clicks that instantly aroused the twins as well as the blood-groggy child.
NO FOOD DANGEROUS BIPEDS
The child shivered and moved in closer, while the female twin remained motionless. The male twin, however, responded by unfurling and stretching his wings in succession. As his sibling watched, the bat took a sudden interest in a kink of wing membrane and deftly smoothed it out with his teeth.
Undeterred by this show of defiance, the mother released a directional pheromone from a pair of glands near the base of her wings, signaling a return to the Stone Cave, their ancestral roost.
This time however, the male abandoned his feigned lack of interest, hissing an angry response.
There was a flash of movement and the mother shifted position, sensing the male’s rapid approach from below. Instinctively, she spun toward him, mouth open, teeth glistening.
But instead of attacking, the male brushed past her, using his elongated thumbs to hoist himself toward the rim of the tree cavity. He was nearly full-size now, and she did a quick sidestep to avoid contact with his muscular body.
She felt a brief downdraft of air . . . then listened to a stream of navigation calls, moving away rapidly . . . fading . . . gone.
A moment later, the female twin scrabbled up the steep cork wall on the opposite side of the cavity. Just before reaching the opening, she turned and let out a single hiss. There was a flutter of movement from above and a brief rain of dislodged bark. The other twin had decided to join its sibling.