The Cross

Chapter Sixty-One

‘Brother, why have you never spoken of this before?’ Lillith asked, stunned.

‘Vampires are frigging aliens?’ Dec burst out.

Chloe had understood. ‘The cross,’ she muttered, almost to herself. ‘The cross wasn’t from here. It was from somewhere else.’

Gabriel nodded. ‘One can only surmise that the rock that fell to Earth, aeons ago, was a straggler from the same meteor shower that devastated their home planet. Its radiative properties remain mysterious to us: properties that your human ancestors must have discovered entirely by chance when they witnessed the destructive effect the rock could have on the feared beings they believed to be “supernatural”. In an act of superstitious ignorance, attributing its powers to some divine intervention against evil, some foolish shaman then sculpted the rock into the shape of a Christian icon.’

‘Lil and I didn’t drag our asses across Siberia and half of Europe for a history lesson, Gabriel,’ Zachary said. ‘We came to tell you the motherfucking cross is on its way here, right now, while we’re standing around talking.’

‘We were delayed getting back on the aeroplane,’ Lillith said. ‘We wandered for hours in a blizzard, and when we finally got back to the airfield, the humans were passed out drunk. For all we know, Ash could have left not long after we did. He could be here any minute.’

‘But how can he find this place?’ Kali cut in.

‘He knows where we are,’ Gabriel replied. ‘He was present when we discussed our coming here.’

‘We need to get the fuck out. Right now,’ Zachary insisted.

Lillith gave a shudder. ‘He’s right. I don’t ever want to be near that thing again.’

‘I’m with you on that one,’ Alex said, exchanging glances with Joel.

‘An interesting turn of events for you, Agent Bishop and Inspector Solomon,’ Gabriel said. ‘The two of you come here as my sworn enemy, ready to send me to hell, as you so charmingly put it; only to find that we are strangely allied to one another.’

‘So are we leaving this minute or not, Gabriel?’ Kali said anxiously.

‘I fear that flight may not be the wisest choice,’ Gabriel said. ‘Ash will find us, wherever we go. He is a truly determined individual, and whatever motivation I was able to inspire in him will have been redoubled by the far greater powers the Masters can promise. He will not stop until he has destroyed us all.’

‘Then we stay and fight,’ Alex said. ‘We won’t get this chance again.’

Lillith shook her head. ‘The chance to do what? There is no way to fight the cross.’

‘There might be a way,’ Joel said. Looking out of the window, the sight of the cable tracks stretching away down the valley had given him an idea. He glanced at the pistol in Alex’s hand and said, ‘Ash might have the cross but he’s still human. Unless he’s a champion climber, it’d be hard for him to scale the cliff. He’ll come up the easy way, in the cable car.’

‘Then we can prevent him crossing the valley,’ Kali said. ‘Simple. Destroy the cable car, right away.’

Joel shook his head. ‘No, I think we should let him get on it.’

‘That’s madness,’ Lillith exploded.

‘Let him speak, sister,’ Gabriel said. ‘It may be worth hearing.’

‘Is there any way we can slow it down before it gets here?’ Joel asked. ‘Better still, stop it halfway?’

‘Isn’t there a stop button or something?’ said Kali, who never took notice of such things.

Gabriel shook his head. ‘In all other respects the device works like a lift, able to be summoned from either end of the cable track. Once activated in either direction, however, there is no means of halting its progress.’

‘Shouldn’t be hard to cut the power to the motor,’ Zachary said. ‘Or else maybe jam the gears with something.’

Alex waggled her pistol. ‘Sounds good to me. If we could stop the cable car over the valley, Ash would be a sitting target. I could take him out.’

‘I thought that gun was just for shooting vampires,’ Dec said.

‘The Nosferol in the hollowpoints is pretty harmless to humans,’ Alex told him. ‘But I never met one yet who could withstand a 300-grain bullet moving past the speed of sound. Believe me, this’ll kill the guy.’

‘You would have to make the shot from a considerable range,’ Gabriel said, ‘if you wish to stay out of the cross’s reach. Are you proficient enough with the weapon?’

‘If you can stop the cable car fifty, sixty yards from the landing station, I can get him,’ Alex said.

Lillith snorted. ‘Don’t kid yourself. Within forty yards of the cross’s power you’ll be in such agony you won’t be able to hold the gun straight, let alone pull off a pistol shot like that in darkness.’

‘I still have three rounds left,’ Alex said. ‘Two in the mag, one up the spout.’

‘You couldn’t do it with thirty.’

‘Do you have any better ideas?’ Alex snapped at her.

‘You’re forgetting us,’ Chloe cut in. ‘The cross can’t hurt us, remember?’

‘She’s right,’ Dec said. ‘Let us do it. We can get closer to Ash than any of you.’

‘Give me the gun,’ Chloe said. ‘I know how to shoot. I’ve shot Ash once before. I can do it again.’

Six pairs of vampire eyes stared at Chloe, opening wide at the implications of what she was asking them to do.

‘We already have to deal with one human with the power to wipe us all out,’ Lillith said. ‘You think we’re going to hand you over that gun? Not in a million years.’

‘I’m sorry, Chloe,’ Alex said.

‘You don’t trust me?’

‘No vampire can trust a human. Not with something like that.’

There was a silence. Gabriel stood up. ‘Let us take this one step at a time. I suggest we go downstairs and investigate the most effective means of halting the cable car.’

‘Speaking of which …’ said Kali, looking out of the window.

Everyone turned to stare.

While they’d been arguing, somebody down below in the boarding station had summoned the cable car. Whoever that somebody was, they were standing inside it as it glided silently back towards the chalet on its cables — and they weren’t alone. Everyone in the chalet watched, breathless, straining to make out the faces of the half-dozen figures inside. Alex raised the pistol, but even her sharp vampire vision couldn’t make out a clear target through the glass.

‘Is it him?’ Lillith asked tensely. ‘I can’t feel anything.’

‘The cross may be still in its case,’ Gabriel said.

The cable car loomed large; then its dark underside obscured its windows from view as it passed above the level of the chalet’s living room and glided in to dock at the landing station.

And then they heard the sound of footsteps on the stairs.

Alex, Joel, Dec, Chloe, Gabriel, Lillith, Zachary and Kali: all eyes were on the door. Nobody breathed. Nobody spoke. Alex braced her feet apart and squared the sights of the Desert Eagle on the doorway. Joel, Dec and Chloe held their swords tightly.

The footsteps stopped outside. The handle turned.

And the door swung open.