Blood & Dust by Jason Nahrung Read Free Book Online Page A

into his chest like a
cricket bat. His feet flew out from under him and he hit the floor so hard his vision turned black,
lit by fireworks. When he could see again, the woman had him pinned under her boot, the chunky heel
grinding into his diaphragm, the evil snout of a pistol pointed directly at his face.
    Hunter helped his mother up. Meg stood petrified, backed against the table. His mother found her
feet and yanked her arm from Hunter's grip. Blood smeared her face.
    Kevin pawed at the boot holding him down, but Mira shook her head at him, the gun barrel
mirroring the action, and he forced himself to lie still, the anger seething inside him.
    A squawk and Hunter stepped back to answer the two-way radio at his belt.
    His mother grabbed the rifle. Worked the bolt and levelled it at Mira.
    Hunter snapped his pistol to her forehead. Murmured into the two-way, 'Gimme a minute.'
    Mira chuckled, shook her head ever so slowly. She lifted her foot, just a little, and in that
ease of pressure Kevin thought he was free. He began to sit up. Her boot pushed him down again, this
time grinding across his throat so hard he choked.
    'Don't,' she told him, and her eyes flashed green behind the huge tunnel of the gun barrel.
    'Step away,' Kevin's mother told her. 'Let him go.'
    'Diana,' Hunter said, his voice so calm he might have been reading the news. 'They get up.
Remember? They get up.'
    Near Kevin's ear, water dripped from the table to the lino, keeping time wet and slow, slower
than the clock on the wall, drip, drip, drip, puddling beside the dead rose on the floor. The smoke
alarm kept its own shrill time, barp, barp, barp. In the background burning meat hissed and popped.
The harsh stench of it made it even harder to breathe.
    Above him, Mira's skirt hung open to reveal her leg above the rim of her knee-high boot, black
tights shrink-wrapped around her thigh. It might've been sexy if she hadn't been killing him.
    'They get up,' Hunter repeated. He took his pistol away. Put the radio down. Reached for the
rifle.
    'Who are you people?' Kevin's mother asked, her voice the barest of whispers. She let him take
the rifle. She stepped back, shaking, and Meg hugged her, pulling her into a knot of arms and
terrified expressions.
    The radio squawked again and Hunter swapped the rifle for it. 'Go.'
    He then stalked into the kitchen and took the pan off the stove. 'There's company coming.'
    'Riders?' Mira asked.
    'Probably.'
    'How many?'
    'Too many, would be my guess. Unless you got something a little extra tucked away under that
coat.'
    'Then let us see what the newborn knows. Take the women out of the room while I talk to
him. Keep them quiet.'
    'Mira-'
    'I mentioned my sunburn, did I not?'
    'Ladies.' He re-slung his radio. 'This way, please.' He motioned with his pistol.
    'Don't hurt him,' Kevin's mother pleaded.
    'Only a fraction more than he finds pleasurable, I assure you, little mother,' Mira told her.
When the women had been shut in the nearest room, Hunter standing watch in the hall, she holstered
the gun and hauled Kevin to his feet. He pedalled backward as she bulldozed him into the wall. His
vision burst with a new set of flashing lights.
    'Kevin?' his mother yelled, and Meg shouted too, a fearful 'Kev!', and Hunter kicked the door.
    'He's okay. Just stay where you are.'
    Mira held Kevin tightly by the throat, her face next to his. 'I understand you've had an intimate
meeting with Taipan. Is that right?'
    'What?' he croaked.
    'I just need to make a blood test. It will hurt, but I promise you, you will like it.' She bit
his neck and he cried out, the sound a strangled, pathetic hiccup under her carpet-snake grip. She
sucked on the wound in his throat. The room spun, as though she was the centre of a whirlpool and he
was a leaf caught in the swirling current.
    'You getting anything?' Hunter asked.
    'He's too weak. Barely had enough to get him across the line.'
    Hunter sounded resigned when he asked, 'Cut and run, then?'
    'Plan B,' she