Icemaker threw the cameo of blood and ice into the flowing grooves, and it hissed.
“Let it be done,” said Nemesis.
Backstage, Alex recognized the vampire he faced. It was the girl who had been spying on him through his window, who had thrown him onto the roof. The glimmering bolt flew through the air, grazing the top of Elle’s shoulder. Elle stumbled back.
“How did you know about me?” he demanded, firing again. This bolt impacted with her shoulder and drove her back, sticking her to the wall.
“You?” she spat. “We’ve been waiting for one of you.”
Alex turned for a brief second to the cages. Minhi and Paul shrank back until Alex pulled down his hood, revealing his face.
Paul suddenly burst out laughing.
“What?” Alex asked.
Paul said, “I’m sorry, it’s just kind of ‘aren’t you a little short to be a stormtrooper?’”
Alex protested, “You should know I got silver bolts right here that—” and then Elle ripped away from the wall, slamming into him, knocking him sideways.
He struck the ground, exhaling sharply. He lost hold of the Polibow and the weapon fell. As he landed on his back, the vampire leapt on top of him and grabbed him by the shoulders, rolling back her head, her mouth open. She bared her fangs. Alex watched her whole body start to come forward.
Suddenly she jerked—Minhi had caught her by the hood that dangled behind her neck. Alex grabbed the bow. As he did so, he saw a fire extinguisher and what he would need: an ax.
The vampire growled, turning toward Minhi. Alex aimed and there was a quiet pumping sound of the Polibow, as two wood-threaded silver bolts went toward Elle’s chest, but she spun, one of the bolts finding solid purchase in her shoulder, where it burned and hissed loudly. Elle growled and leapt backward, grabbing the curtains. She put all her weight into yanking at them viciously. Golden rings at the top of the rafters began to strain and pop as the curtains swayed. Elle disappeared into the dark rafters above.
Alex ran to the ax on the wall. He returned, moving quickly, tearing apart the locks of the cages and setting Minhi and Paul free. Just as their feet hit the boards they heard a thunderous sound.
The heavy red curtains were swaying violently, more of the rings popping and groaning, and then they gave out, crashing violently to the floor.
Alex, Minhi, and Paul turned to face the wrath of Icemaker and five hundred of his closest friends.
CHAPTER 21
For a moment Alex felt the room spinning as he surveyed his chances. Still holding the ax, he turned immediately, shouting to Minhi and Paul, “This way, through the back.” The two started to move, but they were still stiff and couldn’t go as fast as he’d like.
A hissing sound had enveloped the room and Alex looked behind him to see the great vampire roar, “You!”
Vampires were leaping past the ice tower toward the stage. Alex fired the Polibow, taking one out from twenty yards. “You’ll never get out of here alive!” Icemaker bellowed.
As Alex ran through the back, past tall wardrobe boxes, looking for a door, he heard Paul next to him.
“Where are we going, mate?”
“I have no idea. I’m making it up as I go along,” Alex said, before his eyes landed on a rear door. “There.”
Paul and Minhi were getting faster, spurred forward by the sound of vampire legs resounding behind them. The door was heavy and steel, and as he pushed down on the exit lever, Alex had an idea.
When they burst through and into the room beyond, Alex slammed the door shut. “Hold it!”
Paul put all his weight on the door as Alex stepped back, looking at the door. It had opened out and was made of metal. He still held the ax. “Step back,” Alex cried. Paul jumped away and Alex brought the ax down solid in the doorjamb, snarling the head of it deep between the door and the doorjamb. It would act as a doorstop, at least for a moment.
The room they were in was clearly intended to support dramatic performance—he saw enormous clothes racks with robes and doublets. Costume swords and knives lay on tables. There were footsteps at the door and Alex ran to an enormous wooden wardrobe and called to Paul and Minhi to help him push it.
The furniture piece was old, with rotting casters on the legs, but they shoved it rapidly and slammed it down before the door. On its side it covered about three and a half feet of the door. It started to wobble as something began slamming against it.
“Is there another door out of this room?” Alex called.
“I see one,” Minhi said. Alex looked in her direction. There was indeed another door in the rear of the room, next to a stack of paint supplies and backdrop canvases.
The wardrobe shook again. Alex looked at the ax, held there in the door, quivering. “See if they have any paint thinner,” he said. “Hurry.”
Minhi and Paul ran back to the paint supplies and appeared again with cans of paint thinner, about a gallon each.
“Minhi, find a screwdriver and get the cans open. Paul, help me drag this wardrobe lengthwise.” He started pulling the wardrobe away from the door.
Paul paused. “It won’t block the door anymore.”
“When they get the door open we’ll only have a second,” Alex said. “It wouldn’t stop them anyway. So I’m going to give it to them.” They turned the wardrobe so that it lay like a great battering ram on the tile floor, aimed at the door.
Minhi had found a screwdriver on a shelf and was twisting rapidly around the seam of a can as the pounding and yanking on the door increased. “Got it,” she said, handing him a can.
The smell of the paint thinner struck his nostrils and burned as Alex sloshed it along the top of the wardrobe and all around it. “Don’t let this get on you,” he said. For good measure he also sloshed it all over the door.
Then he grabbed the ax handle.
“Okay,” Alex said. “I’m gonna pull this ax out, and they’re gonna get the door open. And we’re gonna push this as far as we can through the doorway. Minhi, when that door opens, throw the other open can.”
They both nodded. Paul was studying the thinner. “Do we have a match?”
“We don’t need a match.”
The pounding increased, hissing audible and loud beyond the metal door. “Okay.”
Alex yanked the ax out of the door. He and Paul put their shoulders against the bottom of the wardrobe just as the door started to open. Beyond, in the backstage area, Alex could see hundreds of vampires.
“Minhi, now,” Alex said. He saw the other open can of thinner tumble through the air, sloshing backstage among the vampires. They were pushing toward him, stumbling over one another. With all their strength Paul and Alex shoved the wardrobe barely through the door, jamming it into the doorway.
“Step back,” Alex said, as he raised the Polibow. There was a vampire coming over the wardrobe, ready to leap at them. He aimed at the heart and fired.
As the vampire pounded his claws on the wardrobe, framed in the doorway, he erupted into flame.
And then the whole wardrobe burst, and beyond the first vampire they could see the next vampire’s robes catching fire. A wall of flame shot up as thinner on the floor and curtains and boxes and vampires burst into a raging inferno.
“Let’s go,” Alex said, and they ran for the back door as the drama prep room itself began to catch fire. Smoke was filling the place. They reached the rear door.
It was locked. Alex brought the ax down on the handle, crushing the lock, and they poured through into a corridor, slamming the door behind them.
Alarms were erupting everywhere, but the corridor they found themselves in was empty. Alex looked back at the door into the drama room. “That fire might not keep them from coming this way; we gotta move.”
The three of them ran quickly in the direction Alex chose until they found a stairwell, then up. They headed down the next corridor, doubled back, and went up more stairs.
Paul slapped Alex’s shoulder as they came to a stop next
to a door. “That was bloody fantastic.”
“What is all this?” Minhi indicated the Polibow and the stake. “I thought you said I was the action star, but you’re practically a manga character.”
Alex flushed, catching his breath. “What I lack are the very, very big eyes.” He peered out into a hall he recognized. It was the main corridor he’d come down from the cafeteria. As before, there were vampires everywhere, but with the clanging alarms ringing, many of them were looking around in confusion. Some of the Icemaker vampires ran past and disappeared into the distance.
“They’re looking for us,” Alex said. He pulled on his hood. “But most of them don’t know what they’re looking for. We’re gonna pretend I’m one of them and I’ve already got you. We’ll go out through the cafeteria. It’s not far.” Alex looked at his friends and said, “I’m going to need to tie you up.”
Paul and Minhi stared at him for a moment, but Alex felt instantly for the rope belt around his red tunic. He cut it in half with the sharp edge of one of the Polibow bolts.
“Put ’em out.”
“Relax.” Paul held out his hands as he looked at Minhi. “I think I know what he has in mind.”
Alex tied the ropes lightly around each of their wrists. “This is meaningless if anyone looks at it carefully,” Alex said. “So let’s hope no one does.” After a moment Alex had his red hood pulled up over his head, and he arranged the two humans in front of him.
“Let me see if I got this,” said Minhi as they started to walk. “The two of us are supposed to be your captives.”
Alex poked her in the elbow. “Just look morose and defeated. Maybe you were softened up already.”
He looked at them both and put his hand on the door. “We’re going back among them now. Remember that all people—even vampires, I’m betting—will play along with what seems to be right. So act confident.”
“We’re morose,” Paul said. “You act confident.”
Alex nodded and shoved the door open, moving steadily into the hall.
Once they were in the hall, Alex got behind Minhi and Paul and escorted them as though he did this all the time.
The alarms weren’t ringing in the cafeteria. Many vampires were still there, having lunch. Alex moved steadily with his captives. Most of the vampires barely looked as he moved past.
“This is the cafeteria,” he said. “We’re gonna take a left through there, out the glass doors on the other side, and onto the lawn.”
As they turned to move into the cafeteria, Alex saw two red-garbed vampires coming in their direction. He started shouting at Paul and Minhi and smacked Paul in the back of the head.
“None of thy lip, thou cattle!” Whack. “The Dark Lord demands your presence!”
They moved past the two vampires, past more tables. Alex whacked Paul again.
“Hey!” Paul whispered.
“Sorry,” Alex said, beneath his hood.
Minhi whispered, “I’m curious where you get this idea that vampires talk like Thor, God of Thunder.”
“SILENCE, FOUL COW!”
Minhi looked like she was about to laugh when she caught sight of the other captives, the sad humans in cages along the back wall of the cafeteria. “Oh my God.”
“Keep moving,” Alex said.
A loud PA system cut on and a woman began to speak.
“ATTENTION.”
Paul and Minhi looked back at Alex and he urged them on.
“TWO SACRIFICES HAVE ESCAPED WITH A HUMAN. A REVENANT TRACKER HAS BEEN RELEASED. DO NOT INTERFERE WITH ITS MISSION.”
Alex blinked. A revenant what?
They were halfway across the cafeteria when they heard a deep, inhuman growl. Alex turned to look at the glass door into the corridor.
A metallic crunch ripped through the air as something blew the door clear off its hinges, sending it clattering across tables.
Amid a wave of glass and ice, a dog the size of a horse burst into the cafeteria. It stopped beyond the door, locking on to Alex and his captives.
No, more than a dog: Its muscular forelegs and haunches were bunched and spiked with shards of what looked like ice instead of fur, and it had a triangular head, like a chow’s, allowing maximum leverage and room for teeth. As the dog roared and snapped, Alex saw rows of dripping fangs in its mouth.
The six or seven vampires in the cafeteria looked up and then at Alex, understanding now who he was. One of them, a male, started to run for Alex, and as Alex reached for his Polibow the dog tore right through the vampire in his way, biting it on the shoulder and sending it spinning off into the distance. The other vampires, learning their place, ran.
Alex let Paul and Minhi’s rope go, shouting, “Get behind some tables.”
With a growl, the dog headed for Alex. He grabbed a table and pushed it over on its side. Dishes and bottles clattered on the floor as he yanked the legs of the table and tried to raise it like a shield. The dog struck the table and sent Alex back, but he held on to the underside.
In his peripheral vision—thank God I fixed my contacts—Alex saw Paul and Minhi head for the back glass wall that looked out onto the white lawn. The dog was straddling the table, its paws reaching around it, and one of its claws plunged into the folds of Alex’s tunic. As the dog yanked its paw free, Alex felt himself come with it, and then he was flying.
He crashed against the metal roll-down curtain of the large window that separated the kitchen and the cafeteria. The curtain buckled, curling around him as he fell back into the kitchen.
Alex got unsteadily to his feet, looking through the window into the dining hall. Back among the tables, the dog stared at Minhi and Paul for a second, and then steered its head toward Alex. It started running.
Alex turned and slid over a long, stainless steel preparation table, landing next to an industrial convection oven. As he dropped his bow and whipped his tunic off and over his head to gain access to his pack, he caught a glimpse of himself in the oven door. In the glass, the dog cast no reflection. Life would be better in the glass.
He picked up the Polibow and the tunic, turned, and ran back toward the metal table just as the dog leapt across the back of the cafeteria and sailed halfway through the window, sticking there for a second. It started snapping wildly as it shoved with its hind legs to push itself through, crumbling and buckling the plaster tiles and the metal pane of the window.
Taking the tunic in his hands, Alex got up on the table and jumped, landing on the creature’s shoulders. Shards of ice drove into his leggings and thighs.
The revenant tracker growled angrily, bucking, coming through the window, as Alex brought the tunic down around its head. He wrapped the tunic several times and fell away as the dog burst free of the window. It lurched blindly into the kitchen, sending the table flying.
The dog’s triangular head was snapping under the cloth. Alex saw the cloth starting to give way, the creature’s harsh, snaking tongue trying to punch through. Alex brought up his bow and shot once at the breast of the creature, but the bolt barely connected as the dog started to run around the kitchen, sending utensils and tables flying. The steel food prep table nearly smashed into Alex’s head.
Alex dropped back to the corner and rifled through his pack. He had silver knives. He was going to have to make this personal.
Alex grabbed a pair of the knives and rose, heading to the back of the kitchen, near the oven. “Here,” he said, “here, boy!”
The dog’s covered head whipped toward him and it leapt, and as it hit the air Alex saw the cloth of the tunic tear free. Its mouth was open as it slammed into the oven, crushing the oven door inward and lodging its head there.
For a second the dog was trapped. As the creature began scrambling for footing on the stainless steel, Alex drew close.
He only had a moment. He watched the muscles underneath the shards of ice that made up its fur. He thrust the first knife deep between the grooves of its fur, up into its breast.
Then he took the other kni
fe and slammed it home.
The dog yelped, and Alex pulled out a glass ball of holy water and smashed it up into the wound.
A hissing sound and bubbling fire began to churn beneath the icy skin. Alex didn’t wait to watch. He was running out of the kitchen as the dog erupted, sending splotches of ice and flame through the cafeteria.
Alex found Minhi and Paul and ran up to them, pushing open the glass cafeteria doors. There were footsteps coming from the corridor, but smoke kept them from seeing how many might be coming.
“Across the lawn,” Alex shouted. They made it out onto the white grass and ran for the wall.
There was a crashing sound as the glass doors of the cafeteria burst open again. A tall, bald vampire in red burst out, followed by three security guards. The bald vampire was pointing at Alex and the captives.
“That’s the human, he’s taking the sacrifices!”
Alex, Minhi, and Paul ran faster, Alex pulling in front. “Follow me,” he shouted. As he ran, he extracted the Polibow.
They made a beeline for the vehicles near the wall, but just as they were nearing them, two red-clad vampires came bounding fast toward the trio.
Alex waited until the first one was practically at his throat before firing, shooting a bolt into its chest and sending it fwooshing off. The other went straight for Minhi, but Alex saw her meet it, prepared. As the creature went for her throat, she feinted to the side, striking it in the shoulder and sending it flying past her. Paul and Minhi kept moving, but Alex stopped and aimed, catching the vampire in the back—not deep enough. The creature turned and kept pursuing them.
“There, there, that vehicle,” Alex said, whipping his arm around as he, Minhi, and Paul ran toward an armored personnel carrier about the size of a school bus.
There was a driver in the front who looked at them and hissed. Alex brought up his weapon and pumped a silver bolt into the creature’s chest. Dust and flame erupted and evaporated.
Alex climbed in, dropping his backpack into the passenger seat. Looking out the windshield, he saw it was heavy and threaded with a grid of shining metal. As Minhi and Paul piled in, Alex turned the key and the truck rumbled to life. Minhi came forward, leaning on the driver’s seat. “Do you drive?”
Alex Van Helsing Page 13
