by Thomas Emson
Nadia Radu said, “They can sense a sundown. Remarkable, isn’t it? They know when it’s time to feed – when it’s safe to hunt.”
McCall went, “Jesus H. Christ,” his voice a rasp.
Crane said, “Impressive, isn’t it.”
Murray called her sons’ names. David responded from the pit.
Michael shouted from the cage. And their voices tore at Murray’s heart.
Radu said, “Pick her up, so” – and a thug with blonde dreadlocks hauled Murray to her feet – “she can see the show.”
Vampires crawled up a ladder that was pinned to the cavern wall, a stream of creatures clambering upwards. Some of the vampires stopped now and then, turned and sniffed the air. They were climbing towards an attic-type door in the ceiling. Murray watched as they started to slip through the door.
“They get out into the streets through there,” said Radu.
Murray felt cold. She thought about them spreading over London, thought about them attacking people.
Then a voice went, “Jenna! Jenna!” and Murray jumped. She looked around and saw McCall stumbling towards a cluster of vampires. He was still calling that name: “Jenna! Jenna!”
A female vampire turned and scuttled forward. She bared her teeth, and Murray saw her fangs. The girl cocked her head to one side, studying McCall. Dreadlock chased after McCall, dragging him back.
McCall struggled, desperate to get to the girl, saying, “Jenna, it’s me, it’s Dad.”
Jenna McCall.
The sight of her chilled Murray’s blood.
“That’s her,” said Richard, “that’s Jenna, his daughter. She’s dead and now she’s – ”
McCall, hauled away by Dreadlock, wept. He begged his daughter to come to him. He looked up at Radu, his face red and damp and creased, and said, “Let her go.”
Radu said, “I can’t let her go. She’s not mine to let go. She’s a vampire. A night creature. She’s not your daughter anymore.” And Radu turned to the vampire and said, “Are you hungry?”
The vampire hissed and then said, “Starving.”
Radu faced McCall again. She gestured at the dreadlocked thug holding him to step back, and the thug obeyed.
Murray’s throat clicked. Her guts turned cold. She tried to speak, tried to say McCall’s name to warn him. But her voice came out as a rasp and carried no weight.
Radu said, “Feed, then,” and Ed Crane, through his broken mouth, said, “Suck your daddy, go on,” and he laughed.
And the vampire who was once Jenna McCall sprang through the air towards the man who was still her father.
McCall stared up at the creature falling towards him. He screamed Jenna’s name and Jenna piled into him, shoving him on his back. She straddled him, and the sight of it made Murray sick. McCall struggled, his hands cuffed behind his back not helping. He kicked and shouted.
Jenna bent her head to his throat.
Murray heard teeth chewing through flesh.
McCall arched his back and stiffened.
And his daughter drank the blood from his veins.
Chapter 97
THE APPROACH.
LAWTON said, “The sun’s going down.”
“Guess that means we’re in shit,” said Rabbit.
“The deepest kind. We’d better hurry.”
The sun dropped behind the horizon. Dusk washed over London.
They moved into the alley at the side of Religion. Unused warehouses pressed in around them. Shadows spread over the streets as the light died. The club loomed over them and the alley was dark.
Lawton shivered as they stood near the back door, just out of reach of the CCTV camera. He clenched his teeth, fighting the fear.
He’d have to re-discover that “do it anyway” attitude a soldier needs in combat.
“What are we going to do about that?” said Rabbit, gesturing up at the camera.
“They know we’re here, so it doesn’t matter,” said Lawton.
Lawton looked up at the sky. It was like lead; night falling. Milo and Rabbit were shapes in the gloom. Milo peered at the security device.
The unit glowed green in the darkness. Milo flipped open the cover.
He took a penlight from his overall breast pocket, clicked it on, and shone it on the box.
A shuffling noise further down the alley, in the pitch black, made the hairs stand up on the back of Lawton’s neck.
Rabbit said, “Hear that?”
“Oh yeah,” said Lawton. And then he said to Milo, “You stay here.”
“Why? What’s –?”
Lawton stuck a finger in the air, indicating that Milo shut his mouth.
He gestured for Rabbit to follow him into the deep darkness.
They moved down into the alley’s throat, colder here, darker, a smell of decay washing out to meet them. Lawton unhooked a torch from his belt and unsheathed the spear. Rabbit armed himself with two wooden stakes, one in each hand.
Lawton switched on the torch. Light flared in the alley. It looked like a dead end, the passage ending with a brick wall and a pile of bin bags. Lawton smelled them: rotten food, decay, getting thicker.
The shuffling noises grew. There was something there, but he couldn’t make out where the noise was coming from – it was a dead end.
“No, it’s fucking not,” he said to himself.
“What?” said Rabbit from behind him.
“There’s a passageway that goes around the back of the building. It’s not a dead end. Fuck, there’s someone there.”
They crept forward, weapons brandished, sweat making Lawton’s grip on the torch and the spear slippery. He tried to swallow, but his throat was dry. Coldness spread across his chest, and his legs grew weaker with every step.
A scuttling noise came from around the corner. Lawton heard groans and grunts from the darkness.
As they got closer to the far end of the alley, the torchlight showed an edge to the wall. There was another passage around the corner, much narrower than this one – possibly the width of a man.
Lawton pressed himself against the wall. He heard feet, and someone was moving up the alley. Scratching came from the darkness, above his head.
“Ready?”
“Ready,” said Rabbit.
Lawton leaned against the wall, peered around the corner into the narrow walkway. He brought up the torch, threw its light into the darkness.
The light showed vampires cascading down the alley towards him.
Their eyes glittered in the torchlight.
Lawton jerked, held his breath. He cast the flash lamp around. The beam showed something crawling along the wall above his head.
“Back,” he said, “back, Rabbit, back – ”
The creatures filed up the alley, scaled the wall, crawled along the masonry towards Lawton, Lawton stumbling away, warning Rabbit.
A vampire shot out of the passage, over their heads. It rebounded off the warehouse wall opposite and fell on Rabbit’s shoulders, the vampire and Rabbit ploughing into the bin bags.
Chapter 98
SECRET PANELS.
NADIA Radu gazed upwards and yelled: “Now, Dr. Haddad.”
The building rumbled. The walls shuddered and groaned. Murray ducked down, and her gaze skimmed around the cavern. Dust and debris coughed from the rocks. The ceiling creaked.
“What – what’s going on?” said Richard, cowering next to Murray.
“If you want to live,” said Radu, “stay where you are and don’t move.”
Murray almost lost her balance when the floor started to rise. The noise was deafening. Creaking wood and squealing metal and hissing hydraulics. Murray gasped, her gaze lifted upwards: the ceiling rolled away to reveal the rafters of the nightclub above.
The wooden floor shuddered and rose. The panelled wood flooring, which included the pit and the cage, was moving.
“What’s happening?” said Murray, swaying, holding on to her husband as the ground under them lifted. “What are you doing?�
��
Radu said nothing. Ed Crane laughed.
Jenna dragged her father’s dead body off the rising deck. Murray looked down at the ground below. They’d risen about ten feet. She could see the void underneath the rising platform. It went down and down into pitch black, and dust rained into the darkness. Steam belched from the depths. A pillar rose up out of the steam, pushing them upwards. A scissor lift encased the pillar, and it opened slowly, creaking, as it helped lift the deck.
“A hydraulic arm, run on steam,” said Radu. “Built here in Victorian times by our ancestors – by the believers who knew that this day would come.”
The panelled floor ground upwards. Murray’s legs buckled. The hydraulics hissed and belched out steam. The podium rose. They were thirty feet above ground, passing through into Religion. Murray stared up at the balcony. Figures lurked in the gloom, up in the balconies. She couldn’t tell if they were human or vampire.
The platform stuttered. Richard stumbled and teetered at the edge. His face blanched. Murray grabbed his sleeve and pulled him to safety.
Radu said, “Stop the machinery, Dr. Haddad,” and a screech filled the club before silence fell. Dust powdered down from the podium into the cavern from where it had risen.
The lights came on. Murray blinked, eyes adjusting, and scanned the balconies. Jacqueline Burrows stood up there, looking down at them.
And she saw Phil Birch, who smirked at her and gave a casual wave.
Fraser, she thought; where was Fraser? What had they done with him? Was he part of this, a spy planted by these people?
Radu said, “Ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters – ” and her voice echoed around Religion. She went on:
“We have waited three-thousand years for this night. Our generation is honoured to witness this resurrection. Many have sacrificed themselves for this day. Among them, my brother.”
A gasp went through the crowd in the balcony and after it settled, Radu continued:
“He was killed by the soldier, Jake Lawton, and these” – she swept a hand in the Murrays’ direction – “friends of his shall pay for Ion’s murder.”
“Mum,” said Michael from the cage, “mum.”
Radu turned and frowned. “Shut him up,” she said to the thug with the Celtic cross tattoo.
Murray said, “No, leave him alone – don’t you touch him or I’ll kill you, kill you and your bloody god.”
A chuckle rippled through the audience. Tattoo clanked a baton against the cage. The children inside recoiled.
Radu said, “Dr. Haddad,” and swept an arm up to the balcony.
Eyes turned in the direction she indicated, “has been our guide in this miracle, and we are all so delighted that he has lived long enough to witness this great occasion.”
There was applause.
Murray scanned the audience. She identified other well-known faces, too: an England footballer, an Army general, a few MPs – from all the political parties. She quickly counted three-dozen or so people up there.
She glanced over the edge of the podium, down into the basement.
Vampires craned their necks, staring upwards. Others clung to the wall, and some hung off the ladder. They were all waiting for this creature, this shape of blood and sinew in the pit with David and Sassie, to rise up.
“Bring one,” said Radu, and when Tattoo opened the cage and made a grab for Michael, she said, “No, not him – he’ll be the last one.”
Tattoo dragged a girl aged around nineteen, in a mini skirt and crop top, out of the cage. She kicked and screamed and scratched. Tattoo clubbed her across the head, and she sagged in his arms.
He bound the girl’s ankles with a leather belt. A hook dangled from the belt. Dreadlock came over to help, and together he and Tattoo hoisted her up and fastened the hook on the rail that crossbarred the pit. The girl hung upside down.
Dreadlock handed Radu a knife. The woman took the blade and looked at Murray, saying, “Watch this and see how your first born will die.”
Radu crossed to the pit. She grabbed the girl’s hair and exposed the throat.
Cold fear washed over Murray. Richard sobbed beside her, saying, “Oh my heaven, oh my heaven, they’re going to kill her, they’re going to – ”
Radu slid the knife across the girl’s throat. Blood gushed from the wound. The girl twitched. The blood spilled into the pit and splashed over the creature growing in the grave. The blood drenched Sassie, David, and the dark-skinned woman.
Murray felt light-headed. She retched, but had nothing to throw up.
Radu held the knife up and light splintered off the blade. “Many of you,” she said, “have never seen a sacrifice before, and it might have shocked you. But blood has to flow. For life to begin, there must be death.”
Radu’s face burned with passion. Her eyes were wide and filled with anger. Madness seemed to pulse through her.
Murray looked up at the balcony and said, “Make her stop. Can’t you see this is madness? Birch, stop this now. You’re a police officer. This is murder. Mrs. Burrows, for goodness’ sake, you’re a politician – you should be protecting the people, not conspiring to murder them. These are children. She’s murdering children. You’re murdering children – do you hear? Birch, do something.”
And Richard went, “Please – please – save them, save our children.”
But Phil Birch, Jacqueline Burrows, and the rest glared at them and said nothing.
Murray bowed her head and started to cry. And when Radu said, “Bring me another one,” Murray knew she could do nothing to save her children and would have to watch them being murdered. And all she could hear was Ed Crane’s laughter.
Chapter 99
BREATH.
SASSIE, drenched in blood, held David. Aaliyah shielded them, wrapping her long arms around the woman and the boy as they cowered in the corner.
The smell of blood and meat was overwhelming.
Sassie looked up. A thug with dreadlocks took the girl’s body off the rail and appeared to toss it away. Sassie knew they’d risen off the ground – was aware of it as the ceiling slid away and the nightclub’s rafters drew closer.
She hadn’t been sure how high they were until she heard the girl’s body thud on the basement’s floor a few seconds after the guard had pitched it over the edge of the platform.
The two heavies fastened another figure to the rail. The youth, his baseball cap staying on his head despite him being upside down, stared down into the pit and started screaming. Radu appeared. She pulled his cap off and tossed it away. She pulled back on his spiked hair, and he screeched.
Sassie shut her eyes. She knew what was coming next: the hiss of blood leaving the veins, the splash of it on her skin. A gasp filled the auditorium. Sassie knew they had an audience after hearing Radu speak to them, hearing their applause.
She wondered if Ed Crane was up there, come to watch her die?
After the blood stopped flowing, Sassie opened her eyes.
Aaliyah said, “Oh shit, shit.”
“What?” said Sassie.
And she saw.
Terror flapped in her breast, as if something had come loose in there.
The figure in the grave pulsed. Its chest rose and fell. A vein throbbed at its temple.
David whimpered in Sassie’s arms. Blood glossed the boy’s body, making him slippery in her embrace.
“My God,” she said, her voice a whisper, “it’s becoming alive, it’s – ” but her voice went and for a moment she thought her mind would follow.
* * *
“Get the fucking thing off me, get it off me,” said Rabbit, thrashing about under the vampire.
Lawton, standing at the mouth of the passageway as the lead vampire charged towards him, said, “Milo – over here.”
The vampire lunged. Lawton kicked the creature in the chest.
The vampire reeled backwards, stumbling into the others that were flooding up the alleyway. But they clambered over him, crushing him under
foot.
Another vampire sprang forward. Lawton swung the rucksack, smacked the creature across the head. It pinballed from one wall to the other in the narrow passage.
Milo dragged the vampire off Rabbit’s shoulders, slammed it against a wall. The thing’s head cracked against the bricks.
“Stake,” said Lawton, “stake it in the chest.”
The vampire sprang at Milo. Rabbit leaped to his feet, stake in hand.
He drove the pike into the vampire’s solar plexus, lifting the creature off its feet. The vampire screeched. Lawton smelled burning flesh. The vampire flared, fire bursting from its body. And then it fragmented into ashes, the ashes wheeling about in the breeze.
“Fuck,” said Rabbit, “fuck, I can’t believe it – I can’t – ”
“Plenty of opportunities for you to have another go, Rabbit,” said Lawton, stabbing a vampire through the chest with the two-tusked spear.
Vampires poured out of the passageway, into the alley. They clambered over each other, trying to get at Lawton, Rabbit, and Milo.
Lawton said, “Get back,” and backed away. The vampires flew after them.
“The door, get to the door,” said Lawton.
The vampires stalked him. He counted eight, then ten, a dozen, fifteen, now. And they were filling the alley, pouring out of the passageway.
Lawton backed up. He said, “Milo, get working on that door.”
“I’ve got your back,” said Rabbit at his shoulder.
“Milo, we need to get that door open very, very quickly,” said Lawton as they came level with Milo, working on the security unit.
“Okay, nearly there – it’s fucking seven-digits – not that easy to remember, you know.”
“Remember it, mate. These things are going to – ”
The vampires attacked, rushing forward, leaping through the air.
Lawton shouted, stumbled backwards. He tripped over Rabbit. He threw out his arms to steady himself. The spear fell from his grasp. A vampire hung in the air above him, another one springing up behind it. He felt a hand grip his collar.