Vampire Shift - By Tim O'Rourke Page 0,34

Ahead and to the right, I could see what looked like a wooded area. So cutting diagonally across the field, I made my way towards it, hoping that the trees would offer me some shelter.

The snow whipped and howled all around me, and in the noise of the wind, I was sure that I could hear the far off sound of screaming. Looking in the direction of those cries, I thought I saw shadows flitting back and forth across the skyline. Turning around in the snow, trying to locate those sounds was disorientating and it wasn’t long before I had lost all sense of direction. Peering into the distance, I was sure that I could see a dark smudge on the horizon, and hoping that it was the wooded area, I set off towards it.

I hadn’t gone far when I noticed the dark smudge had changed and now looked like three dark shapes in the distance.

“What’s that?” I said, shielding my eyes with my hands, trying to workout what the shapes were. With every second they seemed to get closer and they were coming straight towards me. As they got closer still, I thought that perhaps they were three people, but that couldn’t be right – they were travelling too fast – no one could move with such speed and agility in the heavy snow.

Then with my heart almost stopping, I realised that the shapes coming towards me were people, and they weren’t walking – they were running towards me at an incredible speed, as if they were soaring just inches above the snow. Realising that I was in incredible danger, I ran as fast as I could, hoping that I was heading towards the shelter of the trees.

My progress was slow, hampered by the deepness of the snow, which was now level with my knees. Looking back, the three figures were now so close that I could hear the sound of the rushing wind their speed created, whipping up the snow beneath them and spraying it into the night.

“No! Please God, no!” I cried, staggering forward and losing my footing. Panicked, I clawed myself back onto my feet. My whole body trembled – not because of the cold – but in fear. My legs felt as if they were going to give way at any moment and I desperately needed to pee. Not sure in which direction I was headed, I stumbled on, tears running down my face through sheer terror.

Sucking in mouthfuls of freezing cold air to try and calm myself, I turned around to see the three vampires racing towards me, their gleaming white teeth glistening like razors in the night. Standing rooted to the spot, I screamed. Within touching distance of me, one of them darted left and the other right, so as to surround me.

“Stay away from me!” I screamed.

They circled me, zipping back and forth as if examining their prey. The third one raced forward, its eyes burning red and mouth drooling. Shrieking, it grabbed for me, its claws skimming just inches from my face. I ducked, dropping into the snow. Glancing up, I watched as it raced away. My heart almost stopped. The vampire was wearing what appeared to be a ripped and dishevelled looking police uniform. Without having time to comprehend what I’d seen, the vampire lept into the air, corkscrewed around, landed and raced back towards me.

Knowing I had nowhere to run or hide, I covered my face with my hands and prayed that my death would be quick. The sound of its screaming, coming out of the dark at me, I closed my eyes and waited to be taken. Then there was another sound, almost deafening. It was like the loudest thunderclap I’d ever heard.

“What was that?” I shouted in shock, snapping open my eyes. I caught a fleeting glimpse of a winged creature soar across my eye line, snatching away the vampire who was just about to take hold of me.

Pulling myself out of the snow, I looked up to see what it was. But it moved with such speed and agility, it looked like nothing more than a fluttering blur of shadows. The vampire in the police uniform was yanked this way and that in the sky just above my head.

It tried to fight back against whatever it was that had hold of it. Shielding my eyes against the snow, I could see that whatever it was, appeared to be stripped to the waist. The creature’s skin was