The Cross

Chapter Fifty

The three vampires barely had time to whirl around in surprise before the landing and stairway lit up with a bright muzzle flash and filled with the blast of gunfire. The blond vampire was lifted off his feet and slammed into the wall by the bullet that caught him in the chest. The second shot spun his swarthy companion like a top and he crunched down on his face. Elspeth froze as the big gun in the shooter’s hand swivelled across to take aim at her.

The three of them had been around for enough centuries to have all been shot plenty of times before: arrow, matchlock, flintlock, cap and ball, every pathetic missile the human race could fling at them in vain over the years.

But even as the shots blasted out across the landing and the.50 calibre hollowpoint rounds punched deep into their flesh, their instincts told them this time was going to be different. And the last.

A terrible howl burst from the blond vampire’s mouth when the Nosferol hit his bloodstream. His veins instantly began to distend and explode, his organs ruptured and his whole body was ravaged into a pulp. Within less than a second, the toxin had worked its effects on his companion and their gory remains lay spread across the landing at Elspeth’s feet.

‘Did I poop your party, Elspeth?’ said Alex Bishop as she climbed the last step. ‘It is Elspeth, isn’t it? We ran into each other back in ‘87.’

Elspeth backed away with a snarl. She dropped her cutlass.

‘So we’re running around with Gabriel Stone now?’ Alex said. ‘I wouldn’t have thought you were his style.’

Elspeth gave her the finger. ‘Fuck … YOU!’

‘Bye,’ Alex said. The gun boomed. Alex stepped over her as the spatter hit the wall, and walked up the murky landing towards the figures she’d taken to be humans.

‘Is everyone all right?’ she was about to say. What would have happened next was the standard procedure. As witnesses to a vampire incident, the three humans would have had to be injected with a preventative 10cc dose of Vambloc. Alex would have taken the opportunity to snatch a quick feed or two while they were unconscious — what they’d never know couldn’t hurt them — and then she’d have had to start the messy work of disposing of the evidence.

But as she approached them, holstering the pistol, already reaching for the little pouch on her belt that contained the Vambloc vial and syringe and wondering which of the three was most likely to bolt or put up a fight, she suddenly stopped in her tracks. What she sensed was more than just the instinctive recognition of one vampire by another.

‘Joel?’ she gasped.

He took an uncertain step forward and the dim light from the open bedroom door shone across his face. Alex swallowed hard. For a long moment, the two of them could only stare at one another, neither able to speak.

‘It’s good to see you,’ she said hesitantly.

‘Alex …’ His voice was faint, barely more than a whisper. He staggered back and leaned against the wall, hidden by shadows. The blackness was rising. He could barely stand up straight any more. Feeling his foot splash down into something liquid, he looked down and saw that he was standing in the spreading dark pool of Knightly’s blood.

Alex had been about to step closer to him when Chloe, pale-faced and fighting back the sickness that was churning her guts, blocked her way and challenged her. ‘Who the hell are you, lady?’

Dec was crouched unhappily by the headless body of his former mentor. Straightening up, he looked at Alex with amazement and pointed. ‘I know who she is. She’s the agent from the Federation.’

Alex was stunned for a second, then remembered the video clip. Great, just great. Olympia Angelopolis would have relished this moment.

Dec stared at the gun in its holster. ‘What is that thing?’

‘It’s nothing,’ Alex said.

‘Bollocks it’s nothing. Silver doesn’t work. Garlic and all that other smelly shite doesn’t work. Holy water doesn’t work. But that does.’ He turned to Joel. ‘Joel, did you see—’

That was as far as Dec got. Because while a moment before, Joel had been standing there right beside him, now he was down on his knees with his palms splayed out in the pool of Knightly’s blood and his head lowered to the floor.

Bile shot up in Dec’s throat at the sound of the wet lapping and slurping sounds. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Joel was lapping frantically at the spilled blood before it all leaked away through the cracks between the floorboards.

‘Joel! What the frig are you doing!?’ Dec yelled, appalled.

‘I’m sorry,’ Joel gasped, tearing himself away and gazing up at his young friend. ‘I didn’t want you to find out — not this way,’ he said. His voice was thick with the blood that bubbled from the corners of his mouth and trickled freely down his chin. ‘But I couldn’t wait any longer. I was fading, Dec.’

Chloe let out a gasp of revulsion. ‘He’s …’

‘A vampire,’ Dec finished for her. Tears welled in his eyes. ‘No, Joel. Please. Not you. Tell me it’s not true.’

‘It’s true,’ Joel muttered.

Dec turned to Alex. ‘Don’t harm him, miss,’ he pleaded. ‘I know that’s what you do, kill vampires. But he’s my friend. You saw how he tried to save us. Didn’t you see it?’

Alex didn’t reply. She watched as the young lad visibly swallowed back his fear and disgust and rage, let out a groan of sorrow and went over to his friend to put a hand on his shoulder. ‘Stone,’ Dec whispered. ‘Stone did this to you.’

‘It wasn’t Gabriel Stone who turned him,’ Alex said. ‘I know, because I was there when it happened.’

Dec stared at her. ‘You were there—’

‘It was me who turned Joel into a vampire.’