by Will Hill
Larissa snarled, and leapt into the fray, a crimson nightmare of biting teeth and clawing fingernails. She tore the throat out of the vampire woman in the trouser suit, who fell to the floor, clawing at her open jugular; she crawled for a few feet, then slumped to the stone.
Jamie raised his T-Bone and destroyed a vampire girl who was approaching Frankenstein from the rear; the shot thudding into her armpit and tearing through her chest. She exploded, showering the monster with blood, but he didn’t even look round. He waited for the projectile to wind back into the barrel of his weapon, and he hurled himself bellowing into the battle.
They fought for their lives.
They fired T-Bones and guns, they swung stakes and knives, and they punched and kicked at the horde of vampires that spun and circled around them. Blood flew in the air, and pooled on the ground. Vampires exploded in fountains of crimson, limbs were blown from snarling bodies, and screams of pain and bellows of fury filled the chapel hall.
But it wasn’t enough.
Two vampires leapt on to the shoulders of one of the Operators and dragged him to the ground. He pulled the trigger on his MP5 as he was overwhelmed; the bullets raked across the ceiling of the hall, sending flurries of dust down on to the heads of the humans and vampires below. He screamed once as the helmet was pulled from his head and the vampires buried their fangs in his face. Blood gushed from beneath their gnawing mouths, and the Operator lay still.
Then a high-pitched scream cut through the noise of the battle, ringing sweetly off the stone walls. Jamie spun towards the source, and saw the skeletal male vampire holding Kate, his left around her waist. With the forefinger of his other hand, he drew a razor-sharp fingernail across her throat. He smiled at Jamie, a look of revolting excitement on his face as he stroked the teenage girl’s skin.
Something crashed into the back of Jamie’s neck, and he sank to his knees, seeing stars. Grey spilled across his vision, and nausea swirled in his stomach. He pitched forward, and his forehead cracked sharply against the stone floor. He rolled over on to his side, and saw the vampires take the rest of his team.
Three of them launched themselves at Frankenstein, who had stopped to look at Kate. They hung from his enormous frame like leeches, clubbing at his face and neck with their fists, and he was driven slowly to his knees. A vampire woman, in a black T-shirt and glistening black PVC jeans, pulled a short serrated knife from her boot and held it to the monster’s neck. He stiffened, but the vampire didn’t kill him. She held the knife to his neck, and he was still.
The surviving Operator was sent spinning by a haymaker punch that he never saw. He was backing away from a pair of snarling vampires, a man and a woman who were almost naked, their clothes hanging from them in ribbons, and he was almost decapitated from behind by the blow. It was thrown by Anderson, who put every last drop of his unnatural strength into it. The Operator flew into the stone wall, his helmet shattering under the impact, and he slid to the floor. Anderson walked slowly over to the fallen man, and put one of his huge feet on the man’s throat. He increased the pressure, pinning the man against the wall, and looked happily at Alexandru.
Larissa was herded against the wall, snarling and spraying blood from her face and hair with every quick dart of her head. Four of the vampires surrounded her, and she stood still, hissing and twitching, knowing she could not take them all.
Jamie pushed himself dizzily to his feet, and saw that he was standing alone in the middle of the chapel hall; the vampires had backed away to the walls, taking his companions with them. His head was ringing, and his gorge had risen. He swayed unsteadily on his feet, and turned to face Alexandru.
The ancient vampire was standing on the edge of the platform, staring down at him with delight in his eyes. Behind him stood Marie Carpenter, her arms dangling at her sides, her eyes wide with concern for her son.
“Move an inch, and I’ll gut you,” said Alexandru, in a voice that was little more than a whisper. Marie moaned, but she stood still.
I’m going to kill you, thought Jamie. Even if it costs me my life, I’m going to kill you for what you’ve done to my mother.
“So,” said Alexandru. “It appears we have reached an impasse. I no longer feel inclined to let your friends go, but I will make their deaths quick if you come up here to me now. If you don’t, you will have the privilege of watching them die, one after the other. It’s entirely up to you.”
Jamie stared up at the vampire, looking for something, anything that might help him. His eyes flicked to the huge window behind the ancient vampire, and then suddenly he saw it.
He put his hands to the belt on his waist. He brought his T-Bone and his MP5 up, and pointed them at Alexandru, his hands shaking.
The ancient vampire laughed.
“Oh good Lord,” he said, bemusement in his voice. “Take your best shots, Mr Carpenter. If it will make you feel that you did everything you could, then by all means take them.”
Jamie looked around the room, at his friends.
Frankenstein was staring levelly at him, a look of confidence on his face, and it heartened Jamie to see it.
This needs to work. I’m only going to get one chance at this.
Larissa looked at him, her eyes shining red, her chest rising and falling. There was pride on her face, and something else, and Jamie felt heat rise in his face. He didn’t care; he let it flood through him, and looked at Kate.
Her face was full of fear, but there was a determination there, as well as revolted anger at the touch of the skeletal vampire.
Finally, Jamie Carpenter looked at his mother.
She returned his gaze, favouring him with an expression of unadulterated love. He smiled at her, and she smiled back at her son.
He lifted the MP5, twisted its selector to full auto, aimed it and pulled the trigger. The bullets streamed past Alexandru’s head, who didn’t even flinch, and thudded into the huge cross that stood behind him. The wood splintered and shattered under the impacts, and the great crucifix creaked on its suddenly unstable base.
Alexandru didn’t notice. He looked down at Jamie and opened his palms towards the teenager, as if to say ‘What now?’
Jamie threw the gun aside; it clattered to the floor, and slid to a halt in the middle of the room. He raised the T-Bone against his shoulder.
One shot. Just one shot.
He fired, and the projectile screamed across the chapel hall. It sailed over Alexandru’s head, and crashed into the centre of the cross with a heavy thud, digging deeply into the dense, ancient wood.
“Oh dear,” said Alexandru, softly. “You missed.”
Jamie set his feet against the uneven stone floor, and held the T-Bone against his chest. The motor whirred as it tried to wind the metal stake back in, and he felt his feet slide momentarily towards the old vampire, who was looking at him with an expression that was close to pity.
Then the bullet-weakened base of the cross creaked, and gave way.
Alexandru Rusmanov, who could move so fast he was a blur to human eyes, who had walked the earth, killing and torturing, for more than five hundred years, never saw it coming. At the last second a shadow fell across him from behind, and his forehead creased into a frown before the huge cross, which had overlooked forty generations of the faithful, annihilated him.
It landed on his shoulders, shattering his spine and crushing the back of his skull to powder, driving him from the platform and on to the ground. His legs broke, and he crumpled to the stone floor, his pelvis cracking in two and filling instantly with blood. He rolled as he fell, and the right arm of the cross ripped his left arm out at the shoulder, sending it sliding wetly across the floor. The vampire hit the ground, a limp sack of flesh and blood. The cross settled on top of him, tearing his chest open as it slit to a creaking halt.
For a second, there was silence in the chapel hall, as the vampires stared blankly at their fallen leader.
Then the Blacklight team moved.
Frankenstein reached
out and crushed the PVC-clad vampire’s hand. Her fingers broke, and she dropped the knife, shrieking in pain, until the monster staked her and she exploded in a pillar of blood. He rose from the floor like an erupting volcano, firing his shotgun and his T-Bone, scattering vampires across the hall.
The Operator grabbed Anderson’s ankle and twisted it, sharply. There was a loud crack as the bone broke, and Anderson howled, the high wavering cry of a child. He reeled backwards, his infant face clouded with pain and confusion, his eyes flicking from Alexandru’s fallen form to the Operator in front of him, who was pushing himself up the wall. Anderson backed away, then turned and leapt into the air. He flew across the hall like a great swollen bird, smashed through the stained-glass window, and disappeared into the night sky.
Larissa lunged forward and sank her hand into the chest of the vampire nearest her, who was staring with a look of incomprehension at the fallen cross. The woman screamed as fingernails tore through her skin, and found her heart. Then Larissa clenched her fist, and the organ exploded. A moment later the rest of the woman erupted, and Larissa moved forward, a snarling, blood-soaked angel of death. The other three vampires who had backed her against the wall turned and fled, leaping across the room and disappearing through the broken window.
The rest of Alexandru’s followers went after them. Frankenstein and the Operator each T-Boned one of the fleeing vampires, smashing them out of midair with the screeching projectiles. They were hauled back to the ground, and exploded on impact, sending fresh blood running across the stone floor.
Kate saw her chance, and sank her teeth into the skeletal vampire’s arm. She shook her head like a terrier, then pulled, hard. A chunk of meat tore out of the vampire’s arm, and he screamed in pain. His fingernail left her neck, and she ducked out of his grip, spat out the chunk of meat, and turned to face him. The vampire looked up at her with red eyes, and she plunged the stake into his chest, driving him back against the wall. He burst in a great explosion of blood, soaking her from head to toe, but Kate didn’t flinch. Instead, she turned back to the centre of the hall, saw the blood-soaked remnants of the Blacklight team walking towards each other, and ran to join them.
As his friends routed the remainder of Alexandru’s followers, Jamie walked slowly across the room towards the fallen vampire. His mother took a tentative step towards him, but he held up a hand.
“Stay where you are, Mum,” he called. “It’s not over yet.”
He crossed the stone floor of the hall, and knelt down next to Alexandru.
The vampire’s face was destroyed; one of his eyes was missing, his mouth opened and closed silently, and blood was pumping steadily from the back of his head, running freely across the ground. The severed arm lay beside Jamie, and he pushed it away, disgusted. Then he looked at Alexandru’s chest, and smiled at what he saw.
The skin had been torn away, and the ribcage had been shattered to pieces. Alexandru’s insides lay open to the cold air of the monastery, and Jamie could see the slowly beating red bulb of the ancient vampire’s heart. He reached down to his belt and pulled his stake from its loop.
“Too… late.”
Jamie looked round, and saw Alexandru’s remaining eye looking at him. The vampire’s mouth was twisted into a ghoulish approximation of a smile, and he was trying to speak again. Jamie leant down next to the swollen, broken mouth, and listened.
“Too… late,” Alexandru said again, and laughed, a tiny grunt that was full of pain. “He rises. And everyone you love… will die.”
Jamie looked down at the old vampire, then yawned, extravagantly, throwing his head back and squeezing his eyes shut. When he had finished, he smiled down at Alexandru, who was looking at Jamie with dying outrage on his face.
Then Jamie raised the stake above his head, held it for a long moment, and hammered it into the vampire’s beating heart.
A column of blue fire shot out of the organ as Jamie’s stake pierced it. The chapel hall shook as a tremor thudded through it, then what was left of Alexandru exploded in a series of deafening thunderclaps, blood thudding into the air in great bursts that splashed across Jamie, and on to the stone floor around him.
Jamie stared for a long moment, then closed his eyes and slumped to his knees. Frankenstein, Larissa and the rest of the Blacklight team ran towards him, but before they were even halfway there Marie Carpenter leapt down from the platform, slid to the blood-soaked floor, and wrapped her arms around her son.
Chapter 47
THE HUMAN HEART IS A
FRAGILE THING
Six figures made their way slowly out of the Lindisfarne monastery, as the first glow of the imminent dawn began to creep over the horizon to the east. Jamie and Frankenstein had each placed an arm under Marie Carpenter’s shoulders, and were helping her across the thick grass that covered the cliff tops. Kate and Larissa walked side by side, a comfortable silence between them. The Blacklight Operator brought up the rear, his weapon still set against his shoulder, his visor sweeping slowly from left to right.
On the headland above the monastery stood a Blacklight helicopter, its angular shape a dark silhouette against the coming dawn. The pilot who had delivered Frankenstein and the two Operators to Lindisfarne was standing at the cockpit door, his MP5 drawn. He lowered it as they approached, and a smile broke across his face.
Frankenstein went to the man and they embraced, laughter echoing in the pre-dawn air, the simple laughter of men who are glad to be alive. Jamie let go of his mother, reluctantly, and shrugged his weapons and body armour to the grass. He stood up and stretched his arms above his arms; he felt lighter than he had at any point since his father had died. Then Larissa pressed herself against him, and kissed him. He hesitated for a moment, knowing his mother and his friends were watching, but then he gave in, and kissed her back. They broke the embrace, and Jamie flushed a deep red, looking around at the grinning faces of the survivors.
The Operator lifted his helmet, and rotated his head, his neck creaking as the muscles relaxed. His face was pale, but his eyes were alive with adrenaline, and he smiled at Jamie. The teenager’s heart leapt as he found himself looking into a familiar face.
“Terry?” he said, a smile creeping over his face.
The Blacklight instructor grinned, then stepped forward and wrapped Jamie up in a crushing hug.
“You did it,” he whispered into the teenager’s ear. “You really did it.”
He released his grip, and Jamie stared at him, overcome.
“What are you doing here?” he asked. “I don’t understand.”
“Frankenstein told me you were in trouble,” Terry replied. “And I don’t get many chances to put on the old uniform.”
He smiled warmly at Jamie, but the teenager’s mind was already elsewhere.
Frankenstein.
Jamie looked over at the monster, and was about to ask him for a word in private when a voice shouted his name. It was Kate who called out, and when he turned towards her, panic spilled through him like ice. She was kneeling on the ground beside his mother, who was convulsing.
He ran to her, sliding to the ground next to Kate. He grabbed his mother’s shoulders and tried to slow her thrashing. Her head was whipping from side to side, her long hair fanning out around her, her arms and legs drumming the grass.
“What happened?” yelled Jamie.
Kate looked at him, a frightened expression on her face.
“I don’t know,” she replied. “She just fell down. I was holding her arm, and she just fell down.”
Frankenstein, Larissa, Terry and the pilot were suddenly next to him, helping him hold his mother, demanding to know what had happened. Then Marie’s head suddenly jerked up, and she looked round at them with crimson eyes.
Jamie’s heart stopped, as Kate screamed and Larissa gasped in shock.
Oh no. Oh, please no. Not this. Not after I’ve got her back. Please, not this.
“I’m sorry!” screamed Marie. “I’m so sorry, Jamie! I’m sorry!�
��
There was movement as the pilot fumbled the stake from his belt. Without thinking, Jamie pulled his Glock pistol from its holster and levelled it at the man’s head. For a second, no one moved, until Jamie found his voice.
“Get some blood from the medical pack in the helicopter,” he said. “Do it now.”
The pilot backed away, his eyes locked on the barrel of Jamie’s gun, and then turned and ran to the helicopter. He returned less than a minute later, holding a plastic pouch of O negative blood.
Jamie snatched it out of his hands, tore it open, and pressed the opening to his mother’s mouth, as if he was feeding a baby. Her head was twisting slowly from side to side, her eyes were closed, and she was moaning gently, but her mouth latched on to the plastic nozzle.
He turned away as his mother drank the blood.
He couldn’t watch her do it, couldn’t bear to see her reduced to this. When the pouch was empty he cast it aside, and looked down at her. She was staring up at him with the pale green eyes he recognised, a look of terrible, painful shame on her face. He reached towards her, but she scrambled away from him, pushing the restraining hands from her body, and jumped to her feet. He tried to go to her again, his arms outstretched, ready to hug her, ready to let her know that he didn’t care what had happened to her, she was still his mother, and he still loved her. But she turned her back on him.
“I don’t want you to see me like this,” she whispered. “I’m revolting.”
“You’re my mum,” said Jamie.
He saw her shoulders heave as she began to cry, and he stood there helplessly, without the slightest idea of what to do. He looked around at Frankenstein, who was watching Marie with a solemn expression on his face. The monster caught his eyes, but he said nothing. Larissa stood with her hand over her mouth, her eyes wide and wet. In the end, it was Kate who moved.
