Vampire Shift - By Tim O'Rourke Page 0,45

salty solutions and freezes at between minus two and minus three degrees Celsius,” I explained, not wanting to sound as if I were patronising him. “Blood starts to coagulate after less than ten minutes outside of the body, although if you had a shallow pool of blood, it would start to congeal more rapidly around the edges. Temperature also plays a big part – the warmer it is, the slower the coagulation – the colder it is, the faster the coagulation.”

Potter and Murphy looked at me blankly.

“It’s freezing out there, right?” I said, exasperated. “So if we know that blood clots in less than ten minutes, but more quickly in the cold, the blood on that man was still tacky. My guess is that he couldn’t have been murdered more than five minutes before I found his body.”

“Where did you learn all this shit?” Potter said.

“It’s not -” I started.

“What else did you see?” Murphy asked me, glancing at Potter as if to tell him to be quiet.

“Like I said, they left footprints – four individual sets. But there was something wrong with one of them, I think they had an injury but I can’t be sure,” I told them.

“Could you see where the tracks led to and from? If we’re quick enough, we might be able to track them,” Potter said, pulling on his jacket.

“No, it was like before,” I said. “There were only tracks around the body – so they must’ve flown in and out of the crime scene.”

“Vampires!” Murphy seethed.

Then looking at the both of them, I said, “Who said anything about vampires?”

“What you talking about?” Potter said, fixing his utility belt around his waist.

“That man wasn’t killed by vampires,” I said.

“Who then?” Murphy snapped, desperate to find out what I knew.

“Vampyrus,” I said. “That man was murdered by bats.”

“Ridiculous,” Potter scoffed. But I noticed the look of concern that flashed between him and his sergeant.

“How can you be certain?” Murphy asked, and I detected a tremor in his voice.

“Like I told you, that man was murdered not long before I discovered him,” I started to explain.

“So?” Potter said.

Standing and slapping the palms of my hands against my brow in frustration, I said, “My god, you just don’t see it do you?”

“See what?” Murphy shouted, sounding pissed at me all over again.

“It was still daylight when the killing took place!” I almost screamed at them. “Vampires can’t live in the light – but Vampyrus can. But not only that – vampires can’t fly!”

“But there was only meant to be the one!” Potter said, looking at Murphy. “We were here to track just the one!”

Sergeant Murphy looked at Potter and seemed to be taking in what I’d just said. He was quiet and thoughtful for a moment, then said, “If the girl is right and we have more than one Vampyrus addicted to the blood of humans – then we’ve got problems.”

“Problems?” Potter roared. “If we don’t find them – we could have an epidemic!”

“The matter is far worse than I first thought,” Murphy said, sucking on the end of his pipe. “Where did you find this body?”

“Do you have a map?” I asked.

Without saying anything, Potter pulled one from a desk drawer and spread it out flat.

Looking at the map, I got my bearings, then tracing my finger across it; I stopped at a field about a mile and half from the Crescent Moon Inn. “There,” I said. “That’s where the body is.”

Pulling on his jacket and taking some large flashlights, Murphy and Potter made for the police station door.

“Hang on!” I said to them.

“For what?” Potter asked, looking back at me.

“Where’s Luke?”

Glancing at one another, Murphy turned to look at me and said, “He’s gone under.”

“Under where?” I asked, my heart beginning to race.

“To the caves,” Murphy said, sloping back towards me.

“Home?” I asked, realising that they were talking about The Hollows. “But why?”

“When Rom discovered that he had told you everything,” Murphy explained, “he sent Luke back below ground.”

“But he saved my life,” I said.

“He broke the rules,” Potter cut in.

“What rules?” I snapped. “That he shouldn’t have helped me – saved me?”

“He shouldn’t have told you about us,” Murphy said. “He had no right.”

“But he did what he thought was right,” I said, trying to defend him.

Then coming towards me, his eyes fixed on mine and his voice low, Potter said, “Don’t be fooled to think that Luke Bishop loves you, Kiera.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked staring back, trying not to let