The Cross

‘We need now only await the return of Rolando, Petroc and Elspeth,’ Gabriel said to Zachary in the conservatory, ‘telling us that our old friend Alex Bishop has finally been eliminated. Part of me will be sorry to hear it,’ he sighed, ‘but she was given a choice. She could have joined us. Instead, she saw fit to stand with the enemy.’

‘Ash is coming,’ Zachary said, nodding past Gabriel’s shoulder. Gabriel turned as the human approached.

‘Hero of the hour,’ Gabriel said, placing a hand on his shoulder. ‘What can I offer you?’

‘My reward,’ Ash said.

‘Indeed, I made you a promise,’ Gabriel smiled. ‘And I am true to my word. You shall have it, the moment your mission is completed. For there is one more task you must perform before you may claim your prize.’

Lillith came bursting in from the garden, a blood-drunk Baxter Burnett staggering behind her. ‘Gabriel, we’re out of humans,’ she said. ‘Marcellus wants to know what to do with the icky bits?’

‘Toss them to the dogs,’ Gabriel said casually. ‘Sister, I was just telling our friend about the final phase of our plan. Ash, you will take the cross to Siberia, to the domain of — how shall I put it — some extremely important distant relations of ours. Only you can perform the final ceremony that will see the weapon encased in liquid lead and embedded in the ice wall of the Grand Hall of their citadel, where it will remain as their trophy.’

Ash nodded slowly. ‘And then?’

‘And then you will return here so that I may personally fulfil my pledge to you. You will at last become the thing you have so long desired to be.’

‘Siberia,’ Ash said. He thought about it. ‘I don’t know where to go.’

‘Lillith and Zachary shall escort you,’ Gabriel told him. Something caught his eye and he glared at Baxter. ‘What is that thing protruding from your pocket?’ he asked sharply, pointing.

‘Uh, this? Uh … just my vitamins,’ Baxter said, shoving the tube of pills back out of sight.

‘Vampires do not take vitamins,’ Gabriel said. ‘I know what they are. Give them to me at once, do you hear?’

Baxter handed them over sheepishly. Gabriel contemptuously tossed the Solazal packet to Zachary. ‘Dispose of this garbage, would you, please?’

‘Siberia?‘ Lillith said. She was about to explode in protest, but a glance from Gabriel silenced her.

‘Back to the uglies,’ Zachary sighed. ‘I’d seen enough of those motherfuckers to last me a while. We taking Lonsdale’s plane again?’

Gabriel shook his head. ‘It would be pushing our good fortune beyond the bounds of sense to overuse it, as the human police are bound to track it down sooner or later. I suggest we leave it where it is, where the Romanian officials will be a long time finding it. Our Solazal-swallowing friend Baxter’s mode of air transportation will be its replacement. No objections, I trust, Baxter?’

‘Uh … none, no,’ Baxter said hesitantly.

Gabriel rubbed his hands together. ‘Excellent. For my own part, I have decided to take a vacation. My problem has been deciding where — after all these centuries, there is scarcely a corner of this world with which I am not already familiar to the point of utter tedium. I could have made use of the Tuscan villa vacated by our late ghoul Jeremy Lonsdale, but Italy bores me. Now, Switzerland, on the other hand … it has been a good eighty years since my last visit.’ He flashed a knowing smile at Baxter.

‘How did you know I had a place in Switzerland?’ Baxter asked with a frown.

‘Thank my Minister of Information,’ Gabriel said, motioning to Zachary. ‘The interweb may have its uses after all. Your amorous exploits at the hunting lodge, exactly nine and a half miles north-east of Zermatt, have been well documented in the human media. A most admirable location, Baxter. Fine views across the mountain valley; accessible only by its own private cable car; secluded, yet not too distant from the local villages where one can be assured of a ready meal.’

‘I don’t exactly let the place out,’ Baxter said, reddening.

‘Then I should be all the more honoured to make use of it for a while,’ Gabriel told him. ‘Naturally, I shall also require from you a certain quantity of spending money. What with all these bribes we have been compelled to pay to greedy customs officials and petty bureaucrats in order to pass unobserved from place to place, our coffers are rapidly running empty. And as you must know, Switzerland is not the least expensive of places for a personage of taste.’

Baxter was almost choking with outrage.

‘I knew I could count on you,’ Gabriel said, beaming. ‘Shall we say, ten million euros in cash? To start with.’

Chapter Fifty-Three

A blood-red dawn was breaking as the Jag XKR crossed the Severn Bridge from Wales into England and blasted eastwards down the M4 motorway, speeding along the outside lane past lines of traffic that grew thicker with every passing mile towards London. Alex was silent at the wheel, eyes on the road, sucking on a fresh Solazal. The address she’d entered on the satnav was a street in Camden Town. She’d been evasive about the identity of the person she insisted might be able to help them find Gabriel Stone. Joel had given up asking even before they’d left Bal Mawr early that morning.

He threw her a glance every so often from the passenger seat. Even after the busy last few hours they’d spent together while the humans slept, disposing of Knightly’s body and the remains of the three destroyed vampires, he still found it hard to believe this woman sitting next to him was the same Alex he’d known in what now seemed to him like another lifetime. The same Alex he’d been so consumed with hate for — or had believed he was. His mind was crowded with things he wanted to say, but his thoughts were too confused and contradictory to form them into coherent shape, and he was acutely aware of Dec and Chloe right behind them, crammed together in the tiny rear seats. He gazed at the road ahead and stayed quiet.

Dec was occupied with thoughts of his own as he leant against the window, staring numbly out at the zipping road. Whenever he pictured Errol, he felt a stab of sadness for what had happened to him. But his feelings quickly intensified to a confusion of disbelief and horror and black grief as his thoughts turned to Joel — his friend Joel, sitting within arm’s length — now one of them. A vampire. Dec was facing the void now, w ith no way of knowing where all this would lead, no idea if he or Chloe would make it out alive.

Or human.

But somewhere behind all the horror and the traumatic shock of all that had happened over the last few hours, Dec’s heart thumped at the thrill of the crazy adventure he was embarking on. He thought about Bal Mawr, about what Errol had said about him taking over his operation. He was resolved to go back there one day, if he could — and soon. For the first time in his life, he had a sense of who he really wanted to be, and that filled him with a glow that not even his grief could completely stifle. He found himself wondering, a little guiltily, how much money there was in that wooden chest Errol had shown him. Could it be five thousand pounds? Surely not as much as ten thousand? Dec found it hard to imagine being in possession of such wealth.

‘Anybody notice anything?’ Chloe said loudly next to him, cutting into his thoughts.

Alex’s eyes flicked her a glance in the rearview mirror. ‘Like?’

‘Like it’s, uh, dawn?’

‘So?’

‘Maybe I’m getting it all wrong,’ Chloe said, ‘but it seems to me that if you two were really vampires, we’d be looking at a couple of frazzled little green spots where you’re sitting right now. Must be the twenty-million-factor sunblock you’re wearing, I guess?’

Alex smiled. ‘Spent the last few decades trying to pretend to humans I wasn’t a vampire, now I have to persuade you that I am?’

‘Some proof would be nice,’ Chloe said with a shrug.

‘Fact is, Chloe, Joel and I have something called Solazal that allows us to go out in daytime.’