Out of the Night by Robin T. Popp Read Free Book Online

bad hair and makeup days before, but this set an all-time new low. Digging in her duffel bag for her toiletry case, she hurried into the bathroom and showered. Afterward, she felt almost human again. As she took the time to fix her hair, apply a little makeup, and put in her contacts, she argued with herself that she wasn't doing this to impress Mac, who, other than saving her life, had treated her indifferently ever since she'd met him. She was doing this—just because.
    Finding a fresh change of clothes, she considered burning the ones she'd arrived in and tossed them into the corner, pending a final decision. When she was finished dressing, she stared around the room, somewhat at a loss as to what to do now. Something she'd remembered before falling asleep tickled the back of her mind and she reached for the memory, finally grasping it. Her father had always kept a private journal, so somewhere in this room, she might find her father's last recorded thoughts.
    She began with a search through the piles of books on the desk, but the dark brown leather journal wasn't among them. Next she turned her attention to the dresser and then to the small closet. After her first hurried search yielded nothing, she stepped back and surveyed the room, trying to imagine her father after a hard day, coming back to his room, anxious to fill the pages of his private journal with everything he'd learned.
    While the desk seemed a logical place to work, he'd want to be someplace where he could hide his notes from prying eyes. Her father would have kept an ongoing record of his findings on the computer in the lab for the government, but he was still old school and didn't completely trust computers—or the government. His private thoughts and theories would have been recorded in the journal.
    Lanie also knew that he never wrote in the journal without smoking, so she scanned the room, locating each ashtray. The one by the big easy chair in the room caught her attention. She hurried to it. A book called
Ancient Roman Times
rested on the side table beside the ashtray. A bookmark poked out the top at the last page her father had read. Lanie ignored it as she searched under the cushions of the chair. Nothing. Next she examined the pile of books stacked beside the chair, to see if the journal was one of them, but again, she came away with nothing. Finally, her eyes returned to the large volume on the table. It was thick enough…
    She smiled as she lifted the front cover. There, set inside a cut-out section, lay the leatherbound volume.
    Sitting down, she began to read.
     
    March 6: I have arrived at the Taribu research facility. My excitement knows no limit. Never in my lifetime did I hope to verify the existence of El Chupacabra, the legendary goat-sucker. Now, thanks to the government's spectacular discovery, I have two specimens to study. Oh, if only I could share this find with Lanie.
     
    Surprise and remorse filled her. She understood all too well what such a find would have meant to him. A life's dream come true. She hurried to read the next entry.
     
    March 7: I have finished my initial examination of the chupas. One is much larger than the other and I believe it to be an adult, while the smaller one must be very young. At this time, I have no way of telling male from female, nor can I ascertain the relationship between the two creatures. As they were captured together, however, I suspect them to be an adult female and her offspring.
    The creatures appear much as described in reported sightings. They are gray-skinned with a round head, large glowing red eyes, a slightly elongated muzzle with two fangs (approx. three inches in length), and a long tubular tongue. Its preferred prey is domestic livestock, which it hunts at night, piercing the throat and sucking the blood through its tongue.
    The adult stands at about five feet while the younger creature is not quite two feet. It has powerful hind legs that enable it to leap great distances and