The Cross

Chapter Sixty-Nine

The smoke was pouring thickly out of the boarding station now and through it the flicker of flames was getting brighter. Chloe could feel the heat of the spreading fire and hear its crackle as she tried to gain a handhold on the slippery rocks and pull herself up to the platform.

‘Dec! Where are you?’

No reply. As she called his name again, a gust of wind enveloped her in thick hot smoke and she fell into a fit of coughing. She couldn’t see the cable car any more.

Suddenly there was a figure standing next to her on the ledge. Chloe backed away in dread, reaching for her pistol — but as the figure stepped towards her through the swirling smoke, she saw it wasn’t Ash, but the vampire called Yuri.

‘Come with me,’ he croaked in his thick accent. ‘Quickly!’ Yuri let out a cry as pain racked his body. Chloe took his hand, and felt herself being lifted up towards the platform as though she weighed nothing. The smoke was blinding. The fire was everywhere, its heat unbearable. Then Yuri’s hand was guiding her firmly through the middle of the leaping flames.

‘Why are you doing this?’ she gasped.

‘Your friend save me. Now I save you. Move, move. There is no time.’

‘Dec!’ Chloe yelled. There he was, dragged free of the fire, sitting propped against the wall, groggy but alive, his face blackened by the smoke. His eyes widened as he saw Chloe. He swayed up to his feet, staggered towards her and held her by the arms. ‘Where’s Ash?’ he coughed.

Yuri glanced back in terror in the direction of the cable car. His body suddenly twisted into a violent agonised convulsion. He screwed his eyes shut, opened his mouth to scream … and blackened and burst apart into charred nothingness.

‘Ash is here,’ Chloe breathed.

They turned to see him striding towards them through the fire. The flames flickered in his eyes and gleamed on his teeth. In his right hand he clutched the cross. The left arm hung limply, blood still dripping from the stump where his hand had been. His face twisted in hate as his eyes locked on Chloe and Dec.

Chloe wrenched the pistol from her jeans and took aim. She couldn’t possibly miss him this time.

Ash took another step closer. He bared his teeth.

Chloe braced herself and squeezed the trigger.

Nothing happened. The trigger wouldn’t move. Safety catch! Chloe feverishly felt for it, in case it had been accidentally switched to the safe position. But it hadn’t. As if in a nightmare, she squeezed the trigger with all the strength in her hands. Still nothing happened.

Ash kept coming, the jagged smile on his face broadening as Chloe struggled with the gun. He dropped the cross into the case at his side and reached for the hilt of his sword.

But before the blade was clear of the scabbard, Dec was charging at him like a man possessed, yelling at the top of his voice. Dec was half Ash’s weight but he hurled himself at him with such force that they both fell back into the fire. All Chloe could see through the flames was a sprawling tangle of limbs, kicking and punching and gouging. One instant, Dec was on top, pummelling Ash’s face with his fists — the next, Ash had flung Dec off him with a savage blow and was leaping back on his feet. His clothes were singed and the strap around his shoulders was on fire. He ran at Chloe, ripping the sword from its scabbard and raising it for a massive downward cut.

Then a loud meaty clang resounded off the back of Ash’s skull and he fell forward, stunned. The sword spun away into the flames. The burning strap around his shoulders snapped, and the case slithered across the floor to Chloe’s feet.

Dec emerged from the smoke, his face half-covered in blood from an ugly gash over his eye. He tossed away the large wrench he’d used as a club.

Not hard enough. Ash was already getting back up.

‘Let’s go!’ Dec yelled to Chloe. Spotting the case on the floor, he snatched it up by its charred strap and they ran out of the burning room.

Ash roared with fury and raced after them.