Gabriel was, in fact, having a very enjoyable time indeed. After another productive evening’s hunting, he and Kali were nicely sated with the blood of five random victims — one middle-aged couple hijacked in their car, one fairly old but healthy male who’d put up an admirably spirited resistance before they’d run him down in the woods and ripped him open, and, as an unexpected bonus, two young females walking along the snowy roadside who’d made the mistake of trying to thumb a lift in the Ferrari. Foolish but tasty.
It had been such a productive evening that they’d decided to return home early to open some more of their absent host’s vintage champagne and settle down to luxuriate a while in front of a roaring log fire. The night was still young as the vampires rode the cable car back up the steep valley and made their giggling, playful, light- hearted way back upstairs.
‘My dear, I believe there is still a bottle left of the ‘76,’ Gabriel said absently as he strolled into the dark living room and across the sheepskin rug towards the fireplace, where he struck a match and tossed it on the bed of dry kindling and logs he’d prepared earlier. Vampires had no warmth requirements, but an open fire was a pleasure he’d always relished and would relish again tonight: the spit and crackle of the flames, the dance of their glow against the honey smoothness of Kali’s skin. He was distracted for a moment as he watched the fire leap up and take hold.
Then, suddenly alerted by his senses, he whirled round. To his amazement, Lillith and Zachary were standing at the far end of the room, the firelight flickering on their faces.
‘My friends,’ he began, walking towards them with open arms. ‘What are you …’ His voice trailed away and his eyes narrowed as he realised they weren’t alone.
Alex stepped out from behind Zachary, the pistol aimed carefully at her prisoners but just as carefully out of their reach. She knew how fast they could move, especially Lillith. ‘Look what we found at the bottom of the mountain,’ she said.
Joel stepped out from the shadows, still slightly flushed from the little bit of exercise he’d done a few minutes earlier. While Alex and the humans had held the hostages in the chalet, it had been his job to ride the cable car back down to the boarding station below and return on foot, running back along the cable tracks with nothing but his sense of balance between him and a very long drop. In his hand was the katana he’d taken from Bal Mawr. He rested its razor-sharp edge against Zachary’s neck.
‘They caught us in the valley, Gabriel,’ Lillith said.
‘We were coming to warn you …’ Zachary began, but Joel pressed the katana blade harder against his throat and he went quiet.
‘I remember you,’ Gabriel said, eyeing Joel. ‘Solomon. The lawman. The intrepid detective. You have undergone a stage of evolution since we last met, it seems. I wish I could offer you a warmer welcome to the vampire race, but you appear to have chosen to stand alongside traitors.’
‘I’m not here for the Federation’s sake,’ Joel said, mastering the tremor of anger and fear in his voice. ‘I just want to see you sent to hell, you and all your evil kind.’
‘Right,’ Dec said in the bravest tone he could muster as he led Chloe out into the firelight and planted the tip of his sword against the floor, the way he’d seen the heroes do in movies.
Gabriel looked Dec up and down, and shook his head as he turned to Alex. ‘I was sadly aware of how far you could stoop, Alexandra. But fraternising with humans — let alone these mere striplings with their toys?’
‘Whatever gets the job done,’ Alex said.
‘If anyone would let us
‘Shut up,’ Alex said, and shoved the gun hard into her side.
Without warning, the living room door swung open and Kali sauntered in, wearing relatively little and carrying a tray with two glasses and a bottle of champagne on ice. Two steps into the room, she let out a gasp and dropped the tray with a crash. At a nod from Joel, Dec stepped quickly over and pointed his sword at her.
‘Over there next to lover boy,’ Alex said.
Kali snarled at Dec, baring her fangs as he herded her across the rug towards Gabriel. His knees turned to jelly but he stood firm and raised the blade with both hands. ‘Watch it, missus. Sure I can lop your head off quicker than you can say …’ Dec wasn’t quite sure what she could say, and left it at that.
‘I hope you realise the skill — not to mention the luck — it takes for a human swordsman to conquer a vampire?’ Gabriel said coolly.
‘Don’t forget this one,’ Alex said, stepping away from Lillith and pointing the Desert Eagle at him and Kali.
Gabriel gazed at the pistol. ‘Loaded, I assume, with the vile poison concocted by your Federation thugs?’
‘And you’ve seen what it can do, Gabriel,’ Alex said. ‘Anybody moves and Baxter’s going to have a hell of a cleaning job with that rug.’
‘Perhaps I have underestimated you. Yet you do appear to be somewhat at a disadvantage. If the weapon contained more than one or two bullets, I believe you would have treacherously gunned us all down by now. Instead your plan is to trick us into remaining your hostages until sunrise, whereupon I am guessing that you and Inspector Solomon here will enjoy the protective benefits of the filthy drug Solazal, allowing you to spectate while the four of us meet a fiery end.’
‘Eloquent to the last, Gabriel,’ Alex said. ‘But the only reason I haven’t pulled this trigger yet is that you’re going to tell me where the cross is.’
‘That’s what we—’ Lillith started, but Dec cut her off with a threatened strike.
Gabriel smiled. ‘And if I reveal its whereabouts to you?’
‘Nosferol’s quicker and cleaner than frying. It’s your choice.’
‘Far less generous terms than those I offered you in Romania, as I recall,’ Gabriel said.
‘I’m all out of generosity.’ Alex gazed at him steadily through the gunsights, while keeping Lillith in her peripheral vision. If things kicked off, it would all happen extremely fast. ‘We know you have the cross, Gabriel. We know about Ash, too.’
‘I’m afraid your information is somewhat out of date, Alexandra. The cross is now very far away, safely contained in a place where no human will ever lay their filthy hands on it again.’
‘No, Gabriel!’ Lillith cut in, backing out of the reach of Dec’s katana. ‘That’s what Zachary and I have been trying to tell you. For blood’s sake, let me speak! They didn’t put the cross in the ice. Ash is coming, Gabriel. He’s coming back here with it and he’s going to destroy us.’
Gabriel stared at her.
‘It’s true,’ Zachary said. ‘The uglies betrayed you, boss. They want you gone. They want all of us gone. And I mean
‘Who the frig are the uglies?’ Dec said, aghast.
‘The Ubervampyr,’ Alex explained to him. ‘The ones I told you about. Ever get the feeling you’ve been used, Gabriel?’
‘Maybe if you’d been less preoccupied with your little playmate over there, you might have foreseen this,’ Lillith raged. ‘Face it, brother, you’ve been complacent. Your vanity won you over. You thought the Masters had chosen you, and you only, to help bring about their plans. You should never have trusted them. You delivered Ash to them on a plate and now they’ve superseded you just like that, as if you never really mattered to them.’
It was the first time in a millennium that Gabriel Stone had been completely at a loss for words. He slumped heavily into one of Baxter Burnett’s designer armchairs with his chin on his chest and let out a long sigh. ‘Evidently, I have made a grievous error,’ he admitted after a silence. ‘I always believed that our Masters would make room for us within their grand design.’
‘Motherfuckers ain’t no masters of mine,’ Zachary said. ‘Never were, never will be.’
‘You are right, sister,’ Gabriel went on. ‘I should have seen this. I have always suspected that, in their hearts, the Ubervampyr regarded us as nothing more than a bastard race. After all, they created us. Now it seems they plan to dispose of their inferior offspring, intending to become the exclusive dominant species.’
‘Wait. You say they
‘Has none among you ever wondered where our kind originated?’ Gabriel said. ‘Who was the first vampire?
