recall of odd facts and figures was a trait she'd found useful both in the research she'd done for her father and as a librarian. She thought that if she could access the Internet, given time, she might be able to find the source of the memory that kept eluding her. Not for long, she vowed. Just because her father and the other researchers were out in the middle of nowhere didn't mean that online research wasn't possible. Somewhere in this building, there was a satellite hookup and wireless access.
Knowing she'd seen her father's laptop earlier, she did another quick search of the room. Of course, it wouldn't be out in the open; that would be too easy.
She looked in the closet and almost missed it off to the side, the black case making it hard to see in the dark. She glanced at Mac as she pulled it out, wondering if her movements might wake him. He never stirred.
She knew the laptop had a wireless Internet connection; she'd tried to teach her dad how to use it before he'd left for the facility—how long ago had it been? She shrugged off the memory as she waited for the machine to boot up.
Within minutes, she was surfing through familiar cryptozoological sites. After four hours of hitting one dead end after another, she was no closer to finding the article. She'd explored every source she could think of, even going so far as to check out the Web sites dedicated to the chupacabra cult following that contained virtually no factual data whatsoever.
Frustrated, she looked away from the screen, letting her gaze roam to the narrow opening in the curtains through which the sun now shone. The chupacabra would be stone now, she thought, remembering the cool, rough texture of its skin. It was no wonder that it reminded her of a gargoyle, she thought. Then she smiled. That was it.
One of the theories on the origins of El Chupacabra was that they were Lucifer's dark angels, traveling across the dimensions of space and time, taking the physical form of gargoyle-looking creatures while in the "human" dimension.
It was the reference to Lucifer that helped her remember what she was looking for—
Children of the Morning Star
.
Finding the article was more difficult than simply keying the name into the search engine, but at least now she remembered where to look. Soon, she found the article.
The Children of the Morning Star was a village of vampires, located somewhere in the uncharted regions of the Amazon. Hans Guberstein, an adventurer whose expedition stumbled upon it in the late 1700s, discovered it. Of the twenty-man team, only Guberstein escaped alive, carrying back with him horrifying tales of human sacrifices and demonic creatures that, from their descriptions, had to be chupacabras.
Guberstein reported that the vampires survived off the blood of the humans they hunted or who stumbled across their village. Their dead victims were staked and burned, thus preventing the victims from rising later as vampires. It was a crude means of population control.
It was hard to tell from Guberstein's report whether the chupacabras were considered pets or deities by the vampires. Their preferred food source was goat's blood, but occasionally a chupacabra fed off a human. When that happened, the corpse was allowed to rise as a vampire and become a member of the extended family.
According to Guberstein, the chupacabra-created vampire was superior to the creature that arose from a vampire killing.
Many found Guberstein's tales outlandish and believed he'd contracted jungle fever while on expedition. Furthermore, they thought the rest of his team had died from the same fever or had been killed by wild animals. The village, its vampire residents, and the creatures were all assumed to be figments of his delusional imagination.
When Lanie had first read the story, years ago, she'd considered it an interesting but fanciful tale with no basis in fact. Now she wasn't so sure.
Her gaze fell on Mac's still form. If the venom turned a
dead
man into
Knowing she'd seen her father's laptop earlier, she did another quick search of the room. Of course, it wouldn't be out in the open; that would be too easy.
She looked in the closet and almost missed it off to the side, the black case making it hard to see in the dark. She glanced at Mac as she pulled it out, wondering if her movements might wake him. He never stirred.
She knew the laptop had a wireless Internet connection; she'd tried to teach her dad how to use it before he'd left for the facility—how long ago had it been? She shrugged off the memory as she waited for the machine to boot up.
Within minutes, she was surfing through familiar cryptozoological sites. After four hours of hitting one dead end after another, she was no closer to finding the article. She'd explored every source she could think of, even going so far as to check out the Web sites dedicated to the chupacabra cult following that contained virtually no factual data whatsoever.
Frustrated, she looked away from the screen, letting her gaze roam to the narrow opening in the curtains through which the sun now shone. The chupacabra would be stone now, she thought, remembering the cool, rough texture of its skin. It was no wonder that it reminded her of a gargoyle, she thought. Then she smiled. That was it.
One of the theories on the origins of El Chupacabra was that they were Lucifer's dark angels, traveling across the dimensions of space and time, taking the physical form of gargoyle-looking creatures while in the "human" dimension.
It was the reference to Lucifer that helped her remember what she was looking for—
Children of the Morning Star
.
Finding the article was more difficult than simply keying the name into the search engine, but at least now she remembered where to look. Soon, she found the article.
The Children of the Morning Star was a village of vampires, located somewhere in the uncharted regions of the Amazon. Hans Guberstein, an adventurer whose expedition stumbled upon it in the late 1700s, discovered it. Of the twenty-man team, only Guberstein escaped alive, carrying back with him horrifying tales of human sacrifices and demonic creatures that, from their descriptions, had to be chupacabras.
Guberstein reported that the vampires survived off the blood of the humans they hunted or who stumbled across their village. Their dead victims were staked and burned, thus preventing the victims from rising later as vampires. It was a crude means of population control.
It was hard to tell from Guberstein's report whether the chupacabras were considered pets or deities by the vampires. Their preferred food source was goat's blood, but occasionally a chupacabra fed off a human. When that happened, the corpse was allowed to rise as a vampire and become a member of the extended family.
According to Guberstein, the chupacabra-created vampire was superior to the creature that arose from a vampire killing.
Many found Guberstein's tales outlandish and believed he'd contracted jungle fever while on expedition. Furthermore, they thought the rest of his team had died from the same fever or had been killed by wild animals. The village, its vampire residents, and the creatures were all assumed to be figments of his delusional imagination.
When Lanie had first read the story, years ago, she'd considered it an interesting but fanciful tale with no basis in fact. Now she wasn't so sure.
Her gaze fell on Mac's still form. If the venom turned a
dead
man into
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