Free Branded by Lust: 4 (Night Seekers) by Desiree Holt

his computer keyboard and typed
in “Chupacabra”. More links came up than he ever could have imagined. From the
killing of Wade Tanner, his wife and their neighbor he’d been determined to
write the whole thing off as someone’s nightmarish fairy tale, but apparently
he was wrong.
    As he worked his way through each website the fear in him
grew stronger and stronger. There were even a few photos that people had taken
of creatures they thought was the Chupacabra. Whether it was the real thing or
not, they were enough to scare the shit out of anyone.
    Wikipedia defined El Chupacabra (Spanish for “goat sucker”) as
a legendary creature rumored to inhabit parts of the Americas . Sightings were first reported in
Puerto Rico, then Mexico and the United States. The name came from the animal's
reported habit of attacking and drinking the blood of livestock , especially goats .
    “Physical descriptions of the creature vary,” he read.
“Eyewitness sightings have been claimed as early as 1995 in Puerto Rico and
have since been reported as far north as Maine and as far south as Chile , and even being spotted outside the
Americas in countries like Russia and the Philippines .”
    All the sites he looked at considered it to be a hybrid or
mutation of more than one species, with long fangs, a hideous head, muscular
hind legs and a scaly torso. The actual descriptions varied but they all had
one thing in common. They vanished from the site of their kills without leaving
a trace.
    Danvers pushed back from his desk and lifted his mug, taking
a deep swallow of the dark liquid. After reading the material he had and
looking at the pictures and drawings, he wished he had something stronger than
plain coffee. Although he didn’t think anything would erase the images or words
from his mind.
    He went to the file cabinet in his office where he kept
unsolved cases and pulled out everything on the Tanners, spreading the crime
scene photos out on his desk. The more he looked the more chilled his blood
became. Logan Tanner was right. This was no kill by any animal he was familiar
with. It was vicious but precise. Every body had two deep puncture wounds in
the neck, one long slice from sternum to groin with the organs extracted and
left at the side, and every bit of blood completely drained. Just as it was
with the park ranger.
    Was it possible to have a creature that attacked like an
animal and thought like a human? This was the stuff of nightmares for sure. The
idea made his hands shake as he shuffled everything back into the folder and
stored it away.
    He dropped into his desk chair, rubbing his face as if to scrub
away what he’d seen.
    * * * * *
    The devil beast had awakened with a fierce need for
exercise. Cold, crisp air always invigorated it. Maybe it was the eclectic
mixture of DNA in its body but the sharp cold always made it hungrier for
blood. For exercise. For everything.
    Standing on its hind legs, it stretched, unkinking the
various parts of its body. From the moment it had woken from a deep, deep sleep
in this frozen wasteland the inner force driving it had grown with insistent
urgency. A thirst for blood, for prey to satisfy its lust, was with it every
moment, although its strength ebbed and flowed in cycles.
    Small animals had sufficed, sated its need, although finding
them had proven difficult. As cold as it was this time of year vegetation was
scarce and so were the animals that relied upon it to eat and hide in.
    Finding the very large prey had excited the beast and it had
drunk thirstily of its blood. Even now the beast could still savor traces of
the coppery taste in its mouth, relive the moment when its two sharp fangs had
pierced the prey’s hide. Savored the excitement of slicing it open to remove
its inner organs and lap up every stray drop of blood.
    Soon the Chupacabra would need another large prey to slake
its thirst. Two more before it could finally rest. Before the frenzy that rose
within it would subside for a