The Adventure of the Jigsaw Dragon

by Kevin L. O'Brien

him. They skipped backwards as the creatures converged from multiple directions. He kept up a withering field of fire as she shot at targets of opportunity, but then her rifle quit.

  "Shit! Outta ammo!"

  "It's too open here!" Holt said. "Head for the stairwell; we can contain them there!"

  Eile dropped back to where Sunny and Henry waited by the spiral stone staircase, expelling her magazine.

  "Gimme!"

  Sunny pulled a STANAG out of the bag and passed it to her.

  "Henry," she said as she shoved the magazine into place, "you stick with Sunny no matter what! Hear me?"

  He nodded as he and Sunny clasped their free hands.

  Eile cocked the rifle and started down the stone steps. Behind her she heard Sunny: "We're leaving, Gurney-Man!"

  "I'll be right behind you!" he replied. Eile just concentrated on the way ahead. The stairs turned counterclockwise, so the defenders would have a clearer field of fire, and Differel had room to use a sword if she wanted.

  Eile descended as fast as she dared, not wanting to outpace the others, or run headlong into a pack of monsters. Behind her she could hear Holt firing sporadically to keep the monsters from overrunning them.

  When they reached the second story she paused long enough to quickly scan the corridor to make sure it was clear. There were no creatures, and she continued on. As she approached the ground floor, she heard footsteps coming up the stairs towards them. She signaled for Sunny to stop and went a few steps further onto the landing, sighting just to the right of the central column.

  Differel sprinted into view. She stopped immediately, crouched, and raised her pistol, but she and Eile both relaxed when they recognized each other.

  "Geezus, Differel."

  The aristocrat joined her. "Where's Henry?"

  "Right here, Mother!" He and Sunny came around the bend from above.

  "Holt's behind us," Eile reported, "along with about a gazmillion screamin' monsters."

  Differel nodded. "I can hear them. We'll get out through the great hall." She started to step out of the stairwell.

  Eile grabbed her by the elbow. "What about the shelter?"

  Differel shook loose. "It's been overrun." And she went out into the family passage. Eile exchanged glances with Sunny, and she could see her partner didn't like the sound of that either.

  Eile followed the blue-blood into the passage, as Sunny shouted back, "We're getting off here, Gurney-Man!" As she passed it, she glanced at the security gate that closed off the entrance to the administrative wing. It looked to be intact, and more importantly there were no monsters behind it trying to break through.

  She found Differel looking through the glass door that led out into the north portico. As she passed a window, she saw the garden beyond was flooded with monsters. A band of house guards had set up three machine gun nests supported by riflemen just inside the pillars, and they fired into the horde as it swarmed up the porch, patio, and terrace.

  "This isn't a raid," Differel muttered as Eile felt butterflies dive-bomb her gut, "it's an incursion."

  "Where's Dracula?" She expected to see him down there in the thick of it, shooting creatures and ripping them apart.

  Differel didn't respond at first, and when she did her voice sounded uncharacteristic in its softness. "Vlad has been destroyed."

  Her words seemed so simple and spoken in such a subdued tone that she might have missed them. Instead, they sent a jolt through her body. "How?!"

  "They must have come in through the secret tunnel from the motte-and-bailey. There were too many of them, we couldn't hold the shelter. Vlad confronted them so I could get away. The last I saw of him he was overwhelmed and being torn to pieces." She spared Eile a momentary glance of despair. "He never had a chance."

  "Holy Jesus God!" She turned to look at Sunny. Her face had twisted into a look of anguish and beside her Henry sniffled and rubbed at his eyes.

  Differel recovered her composure. "We have no time for this! We need to get to Command and Control." She brushed past them and approached Holt.

  "We can't get through this way!" he said as he fired off short bursts. The monsters were flowing out of the stairwell and bunching up at the end of the passage, trapped against the gate.

  "Then we'll go through the great hall and the gallery. That's more direct anyways. Cover us."

  "Go. I'll stay here and hold them as long as I can."

  She put a hand on his shoulder, a distraught look on her face. Having lost Dracula, Eile figured she wasn't eager to loose another close friend. "That isn't necessary! We can all get out of this if we stick together."

  "There's no other choice. We can't waste any time. We must wipe them out before they break free of the estate and scatter across the countryside."

  "Giles..." Her voice broke.

  "I'll buy you the time you need. It has to be done. Remember: we hold the line, and this line will not be crossed. Now, move it, you little wildcat!"

  For a moment, Eile thought she would grip his coat and pull him backward with her, but instead she balled the hand into a fist and pounded his shoulder twice. Then she turned and came back up the passage without a word. But Eile saw tears trickling down her cheek.

  Coming in March.

  From "Youthful Indiscretion"

  As soon as the block fully reassembled itself, the tolling stopped. Apprehension crept over Henry; he knew something was about to happen, he just didn't know what. Then the room began to grow dark. He looked around at the lights. They didn't appear to grow dim; in fact, they seemed as bright as ever. Rather, the areas over which they cast their luminance shrank as the borders became more distinct and sharp. Beyond them, the room fell into shadow like it would at twilight when the sun had set but the sky was still bright.

  In that moment They appeared in his room. It wasn't like how Vlad emerged from shadow, or the affect of Dr. Mabuse's transporter machine. Quite literally one moment the room was empty, and next five beings stood in its center. The thing he noted first was the stench. Though not overpowering, it was enough to turn his stomach, and yet overlaid was the scent of vanilla, which partially mitigated but could not completely cover their foul, rotten odor. At almost the same time he spotted the blue phosphorescent glow that surrounded them like a mist.

  Their most horrific feature, however, was that each was deformed or mutilated in some hideous fashion. One was morbidly obese, with its face so swollen with fat that the wrinkles distorted and obscured its features. Another had a flap of skin covering its eyes while its disfigured mouth had the lips pulled back well away from its mouth and the teeth clattered together endlessly like it was chattering. The third was the size of child about his same age, but its flesh had been seared as if in a barbecue while its eyes stared out from their sockets without blinking. Number four looked like a teenage girl, and while bald was otherwise unmarked, except for a gaping wound in her throat held open by small hooks. They all wore clothing that looked like a combination of religious vestments and butchery garments, except they were made from black leather and vinyl. The robes exposed areas of skin on their chests and stomachs, and it was pierced and sliced and coated with fine powder, like talcum, or...ash? The garments themselves were sewn or hooked into the skin, as if that was needed to hold them in place, in the manner of buttons or zippers.

  But the fifth and foremost, whom he took to be the leader, was the most compelling. He was hairless, with dead-white skin, and his face and scalp was etched in a grid of lines. At each intersection a large pin or small nail had been driven into the bone below. Unlike the others, who looked vacant or mindless, he seemed intelligent and aware. He stared at him with a sardonic half-smile, as if he alone knew a secret others would give their lives to know. It sent chills down his back even as he felt ill. Yet despite how repulsive they appeared, there was something about them that he found fascinating, even provocative. Even as he feared he would vomit at any moment, he felt enchanted by their presence, even a little bewitched.

/>   But then the nail-headed one frowned, like he realized something was wrong. His companions moved towards the bed, he assumed with the intent to take him, but as they tried to go around their leader, he held up a hand.

  "No, he did not summon us."

  Summon!? He stared down at the block in horror. That's why it was in the vault! How could I be so stupid!

  Vlad appeared in an explosion of shadow, in front of the bed between him and the monsters. "Run, Little Master!"

  Whatever spell, psychological or psychic, that held him in that room broke, and his terror galvanized him. He ran for the door to the nurse's room, pulled it open, and made for the opposite side, which led into the nursery. From there he could access the secret stairwell and make his way down to his mother's office. She would protect him.

  As he reached the other door, he heard the one to his bedroom slam shut.

  Vlad moved to block the door to keep the Cenobites from following his Master's son, but he felt the one called Pinhead extend his power to push it closed.

  "Vlad Tepes Drakulya." Pinhead regarded him with what appeared to be an arrogant expression. "Have you finally decided to surrender yourself to us?"

  "No. My current existence still satisfies me."

  "Then why do you interfere with our actions?"

  "I defend the Van Helsing Bloodline. So long as I draw breath, no harm will come to those who possess it."

  Pinhead sported a bored expression. "So be it." Even as he spoke, iron hooks at