The Cross

heart as though it were his own.

No, Joel. No. He cleared his throat and tried to focus on what Dec was showing them.

‘This is the eighth time I’ve seen it,’ Dec said excitedly, pointing at the screen. ‘Can’t wait to see the rest. Hold on. There, now. Look. Look. See the vampire? See the frigging teeth on the bastard? Watch, watch. Any minute now and that Federation woman’s going to walk down them stairs and blow the fucker to hell.’

Neither Chloe nor Joel replied. They were both staring at the unfolding images with completely contrasting expressions: hers was one of undisguised contempt, his one of growing anticipation.

‘Here she is,’ Dec said, pointing. ‘See?’

Joel barely heard him. He couldn’t take his eyes off the screen as the unmistakable figure of Alex Bishop came walking down the cellar steps. ‘I have to find her,’ he whispered. ‘I have to talk to Knightly.’

Chloe had seen enough. ‘This is bullshit,’ she muttered. ‘Come on. Any third-rate media student with a Photoshop program could fake this, easy.’

‘No way they could fake that,’ Dec protested, pointing to the screen where the vampire was being cut down by the gunshot, his body peeling instantly, horribly, apart. ‘Jesus, look at it.’ Just then, hearing the door opening behind him, he looked up. ‘Errol, I was just showing them the clip.’

Knightly strolled into the library, glancing out of habit at the mirrors behind the door before his gaze landed on Chloe. ‘I’m so glad you decided to stay,’ he said, beaming warmly; he was obviously prepared to forgive her earlier remarks to him. ‘I’ve sent Griffin out to the local supermarket to fetch some extra goodies for dinner. Is it safe to say we’ll have the pleasure of your company?’

From the glow in his face, Joel could tell that Dec had been hoping much the same thing. Chloe didn’t seem to share their sentiments, however. ‘I wouldn’t be so sure about that,’ she said.

‘Errol, this is my friend Joel I was telling you about,’ Dec said, working to cover his disappointment.

Knightly turned to Joel with wide eyes. ‘The one with—’

‘The one with the cross,’ Dec said.

The glow in Knightly’s face had suddenly drained away to nothing. ‘You must tell me about it. You must show it to me.’

‘He doesn’t have it any more,’ Dec said. ‘He lost it in Romania.’

‘You were in Romania?’ Knightly marvelled, as if Romania were galaxies away. ‘And you actually destroyed a—’ He caught himself before he went any further. Flushing furiously, he said, ‘Not being a professional at the job, I mean. You’re lucky to be alive.’

Joel was searching for an answer when the faint sound his sharp senses had picked up a few seconds earlier distracted him and he glanced towards the library’s bay windows. It was the rhythmic thump of rotor blades in the distance, growing steadily louder.

It wasn’t long before the noise entered the range of human hearing and Dec followed Joel’s gaze with a frown. Within a few seconds it had grown dramatically louder, and now it was filling the room. The window panes began to thrum in their frames. Dazzling white light shone through the bay windows and illuminated the bookcases at the far end of the library.

‘Jesus,’ Dec said, shading his eyes. ‘He’s a bit close, so he is.’

‘Must be the coastguard helicopter,’ Knightly said. ‘They sometimes fly over.’

‘It’s not flying over,’ Joel said. ‘It’s coming in to land.’

Chapter Forty-Eight

Moments later, the helicopter was hovering steadily over Bal Mawr’s courtyard — then began to settle groundwards, the hurricane from the rotor blades tearing at the hawthorn bushes on the walls. The chopper’s skids flexed under its weight as it touched down, and the deafening screech of the turbine instantly began to dwindle to a howl, then to a roar. The blazing white light suddenly faded to darkness.

Inside the library, Chloe looked at Dec. Dec looked at Chloe, and then at Knightly, whose jaw had dropped open.

And Joel was rushing towards the door before Dec could finish yelling ‘Where are you g—?’

As Joel burst out of the library and into the hallway, he could hear the sound of footsteps outside. Three sets of feet, running, approaching fast. Too fast — the kind of speed that was beginning to feel uneasily familiar to him now. He braced himself for what was about to happen next.

And he wasn’t surprised when the heavy front door crashed open with a violence that tore it half off its hinges.

Joel stood and stared as, one by one, the three black-clad figures stepped in through the wrecked doorway and returned his gaze. Of the two males, one was blond and handsome, the other short, ruddy and swarthy. The third was a female, fierce-looking and muscular, with a shaved head. Tribal tattoos ran down either side of her neck. Her eyes burned with hate.

They weren’t from the coastguard. Joel knew what they were even before he noticed the swords dangling from their belts. He could smell it, taste their presence. Vampire sensing vampire.

The female was the first to draw back her lips to reveal her white fangs, fully extended for attack. Joel felt a twinge behind his lips as his own vampire teeth responded to the sudden threat. His hunger-weakness was completely forgotten.

‘What do you want here?’ he shouted.

‘We want you,’ the female spat, pointing at him. ‘Federation traitor!’ Before Joel could reply that he had nothing to do with the Federation, she’d whipped out the piratical cutlass from its scabbard and was advancing on him, swishing the short, curved blade through the air with a grin.

‘Cut him, Elspeth,’ laughed the blond male.

Joel backed away. The blade came slicing towards him; he bent his knees and launched his body into the air out of the path of the blow. Landing lightly on a sideboard he reached up lightning-fast and grabbed the antlers of the enormous stuffed moose head that was mounted on the wall above it. He tore it away and brought it crashing down on the heads of the three vampires. The one called Elspeth slashed wildly at him, but the antlers blocked her blade and chips of bone went flying.

With all the strength he could muster and a brutality he’d never known before, Joel bludgeoned her repeatedly, keeping up his frenzied counter-attack until he had all three pinned back against the wreckage of the door.

Behind him, Knightly and Dec had burst out of the library and were standing gaping in the middle of the hallway. Chloe was peeking around the door with a look of terror. Joel glanced back at them, waving frantically for them to get back — taking his attention off the three vampires for just a fraction of a second too long. Elspeth’s cutlass hilt smashed into his face and he was sent sprawling on his back. He heard Chloe scream.

Then the blond vampire was leaping at him, fangs bared in a lunging bite. Not to drink his blood — Joel knew that — but to tear out his throat and then twist his head off.

Weakened and half-starved as he was, Joel knew there was no way he could take on another vampire in hand-to-hand combat — let alone three of them, armed and well-fed and plainly very angry. He lashed out with a wild punch, felt it connect, heard the grunt of pain and the snap of the vampire’s teeth as they closed on empty air. He scrabbled to his feet, narrowly avoiding another furious swipe of Elspeth’s cutlass.

Up the hallway, the three humans were still standing there as if paralysed. ‘Run!’ Joel screamed hoarsely as he sprinted towards them.

The first to break out of his trance, Dec grabbed Chloe’s arm and hauled her bodily out of the library doorway.

‘Go! Go!’ he yelled, breaking into a mad dash and shoving Knightly on ahead of him. Joel raced after them. ‘Faster!’ Knightly let out a keening blubber as he ran, his face turning from ashen grey to purple.

The three vampires were right behind them and gaining with every leaping bound up the passageway. Joel