Smith ran, pulling Iullia with him. As they reached the circle, Michael met them and wordlessly embraced Iullia. "I thought you had gone over to the other side."
"Never, brother.” Their reunion was quick and emotionless.
Von Struck listened as Smith and Iullia filled them in as to what was happening.
"Put your faith in the Lord. Only he can help us now," Iullia finished
"I’ll put my faith in my sword because up to now he’s the only thing that has helped without breaking down on me,” Henning uncharacteristically huffed.
* * *
As if Utu had been waiting for the right moment to proceed, the sky cracked again and suddenly a beam of light hit the ground before the Dracyl, who involuntarily took a step back.
Though shaken by the loss of his brother and the werewolf’s defiance, he knew he had to bring the ceremony to its conclusion, so he cried out the last names on the list. "Utu, I call upon Dragan, the tenth name in the Book of Blood and now I call upon Lilith, the first name in the Book of Blood and architect of your demise.”
Lilith walked forward, holding the Book of Blood aloft. The beam of light widened into a circle and she stepped into it, shouting, "Utu, I demand the return of all my powers. With this Book I contest your authority over me. With the birth of your son Dragan, fathered by the Son of Utu and carried by me, I contest your authority over me." And then, shrieking with resentment, "I deny you, oh ancient one, in the name of the prophesies and of the names written herein.”
The circle of light grew and Lilith turned to face the vampires. She singled Vlad Dracyl out and triumphantly decreed. "Now Dracyl, now you will die. All your faith in me will be repaid by Utu’s vengeance against you.”
”What do you mean, Demon? Speak the truth to me or feel my wrath.” His body started to swell in rage and suddenly it burst into his angry alter ego. He circled the light like a tiger prowling around a caged prey, his entire body filled out like a bull elephant.
"Demon, as Utu is my witness, I will destroy you and eat your haggard body whole. What do you mean? I want the truth! I want the truth!” He screamed the last and the blast of air he exhaled moved Lilith’s hair.
"Dracyl, you and your whole bloodline are victims to your own vanity and slothfulness. You flaunted the rules and folklore laid down in the Book, you fumbled the rituals and you believed that I would do all your running for you. I am not your slave, vampire. I was never your slave.” This time she screamed at him and the vampires in the woods surrounding them began to howl and hiss their anger. "Did you think just because your brother was born to the bloodline that he would be able to sire a vampire? He was and still is human. You should have changed him, you fool. You let the Son of Utu sow his seed as a human and you let his mother live. The last name in the Book, Dragan, was born to mortal parents. In name only is he one of the Ten but he is not a vampire. Dracyl, you have only eight vampires here and that is not enough to end Utu’s curse, you pathetic fool." She laughed callously at him, loudly and without shame.
The Count made to step forward into the light again but stopped himself and roared his frustration at the humiliation. Lilith laughed ever louder and suddenly stopped. She pointed at him. "Now you will see what your ignorance has brought you. Tell your vampires to flee, for Utu comes and with him he brings death to all nightstalkers.”
"Never!” he screamed and took a step forward into the light but in an instant his leg caught flame and he sprang back like a scorched cat.
"Utu,” he beseeched the sky, "Utu, kill this demon, take her for me and leave me only the gift of the day.”
He fell to his knees and clasped his hands in worship. "I want nothing more than to hunt the day and to serve you, oh great and powerful Utu.”
Lilith spat at him from inside the circle, "You worm, Utu won’t listen to dung-eating cowards like you. He respects only power and now you will burn for your failure to take him seriously.”
Slowly the circle around Lilith started to grow. It touched the Count’s boot and it caught fire immediately, but he stayed in the position of supplication, crying over and over again, "Utu, I beseech thee, take me into your bosom, I am your humble slave. Utu, I beg of you, I implore you.”
However, as the circle grew it took his whole body and he burnt as bright as the sun. Lilith screamed her triumph over the Dracyl and his line as Vlad Dracyl Blestamatul burnt to a cinder.
"Can you believe this?" Rohleder whispered to Stephanie. She shook her head slowly in mute disbelief.
Michael turned to the squad. "Listen, this is where we enter the realm of the unknown. Lilith will come for the Tree but we have to stop her. Get your swords ready.”
An unspoken current of preparation rolled through them all as weapons were raised and positions found.
All the while, the circle of light had developed until it reached the buildings surrounding the Tree. The bloodline of the Dracyl was engulfed by the fiery tide and they each burnt where they stood. Only the baby Dragan was spared, laid out on a blanket with the Dracyl banner embroidered on it.
Lilith turned to the woods to address the unseen vampires. "Vampires, you now belong to me. I will regain my power at the Tree of Life and we will rule the world. Through me you will once again hunt the day!”
She turned to the Tree and boldly stepped forward.
"She’s coming. Swords, men" Von Struck commanded and, as one, they lifted their blades to face the demon.
Mordechai ran at her from the side. With breathtaking speed he sprinted on all fours and sprang to attack her left side.
Lilith calmly raised her hand as if to stop something and the werewolf hit an invisible wall. He fell to the floor and lay still.
"Stay under the Tree, men" Michael muttered. "It’s here where we’ll kill her.”
She calmly walked into the perimeter of fires and they wordlessly spread out to encircle her. Henning, Rohleder, Michael and Borkin moved to the left, Von Struck, Nau, Gruhn, Inselman to the right.
Lilith didn’t waver in her pace and marched up through the middle.
"Now!” Von Struck shouted and they attacked as one from six feet away. Again, she raised her left hand and all were instantly bowled over by an unseen wave.
Before any of them could regain their wits, she was past them and only Stephanie and Iullia were left standing in her way.
Stephanie hesitated and swung the blade above her head to charge. Lilith swept her away before she’d taken one step and impassively walked by.
Iullia stood alone, Lilith was a mere ten feet away. She stopped. Iullia blinked as Lilith began to chant in a foreign language, holding the Book up to the tree.
Suddenly a cracking sound from behind made Iullia turn her head. The Tree was opening up and from inside the ever-increasing gash came a white light. It grew in intensity until she was forced to avert her gaze to avoid being blinded by the glare, and then her eyes fell on the sword that Stephanie had dropped.
Von Struck was the first to regain his senses and stand up. He looked around and saw that the vampires were now out of the woods and hovering on the outside of the circle of light. Their numbers astounded him and he fleetingly wondered at their audacity to take on such a vast army.
He turned to see Iullia pick up the sword that Stephanie had dropped. He looked for his own, saw it and ducked down to retrieve it.
Lilith, for the first time, noticed Iullia. The Tree slowly opened up and now, with Utu beaten and too weak to oppose her, nothing stood in her way. All that Lilith needed to do was enter the Tree again and her powers would change the world.
From behind she heard Von Struck running up for another attack. She turned to meet him and held her hand up. One second he was running, the next he lay on his back, his chest heaving to suck in air. This time he found himself held to the floor by an invisible pressure. He turned his head to look at the squad and saw they too were all pinned down.
"It’s over, "he thought, "we’ve lost." He struggled to sit up but the weig
ht and pain were too much and he listened in despair as the Tree cracked open another notch and watched as the beam of light passed over him.
Lilith turned back to the Tree. Iullia had picked up the sword and stood before her, the last barrier between herself and untold power.
"Out of the way, child. I will let you live when it’s over, so don’t make me kill you now.”
Iullia, stone-faced and intense, uttered one word. "Never!”
She reversed the sword so it resembled a cross and, holding it in front of her, she knelt to pray. "Pater noster, qui es in caelis … ”
The demon frowned as the sky rumbled and suddenly, as the hole in the Tree started to close, Lilith realised what was happening.
"Sanctificetur nomen tuum … ”
A bolt of lightning crashed on the horizon, followed by another and then another. Lilith followed the sound in panicked jerky movements.
"Adveniat regnum tuum. Fiat voluntas tua … ”
The hole finally closed and the creaking of moving wood silenced. Lilith’s face contorted in rage as she screamed her hatred at Iullia who blithely continued praying,
"Sicut in caelo et in terra Panem nostrum quotiddianum da nobis hodie … ”
She moved towards Iullia but was suddenly blinded by the sword which now radiated a brilliant white light that pushed her back with its intensity. Von Struck found the pressure on him gone and, keeping his eye on Lilith, stood slowly.
"Et dimitte nobis debita nostra, Sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris.”
The whole squad was on its feet. They looked in awe at the vampires surrounding them. The army of the Dracyl was turning in on itself in fear. Knowing that the end was nigh, their gut instinct to being threatened was to attack and so, with nobody else within reach, they attacked their own.
"Somewhere in there is Jurgen,” Henning quietly muttered as he surveyed the mass of blood-crazed monsters setting about each other.
"And Bernd,” Rohleder added. "God help them.”
The heavens once again rumbled and the light from the circle blinded them all. The vampires fell to the ground, wailing and howling in fear.
Lilith said nothing. She knew it was over. She held the Book up to the skies and turned to face the soldiers as Iullia intoned reverentially to herself.
"Et ne nos inducas in tentationem.”
James Smith looked at the face of the girl once known as Maria. He knew who she was but his heart tugged forlornly at her memory and he longed to protect and hold her. He hesitantly took a step forward but was stopped by a restraining hand on his forearm. Looking around he saw Von Struck wordlessly shaking his head.
Henning came up to the pair of them, his sword in hand. "Deliver us from evil.” He nodded as if approving of the idea and shouted to the men, "Deliverance!”
His call was once again taken up by the rest. "Deliverance!” they shouted, lifting their swords to the writhing vampire horde. "Deliverance!” they roared at the mute and broken Lilith. "Deliverance!” they screamed as Iullia spoke the last words of the Oratio Dominica to banish Lilith and the vampire plague to oblivion.
"Sed libera nos a malo. Amen.”
The sky ripped open and the world turned a gleaming white. At first they closed their eyes to its brightness but slowly, one by one, they opened them again. The circle, the forest, everywhere was bathed in a radiant, cleansing light.
Smith looked again at Lilith who had now returned to her original body. Her bald, withered skull screamed in agony as the purging, heavenly fire gradually engulfed her. In one last beseeching gesture she reached a hand out to Smith and finally fell to lie in the inferno of her own damnation
All around, the vampires burned where they lay. Only the humans were spared the terrible fiery end and they watched in awestruck silence as the scene played out before them.
The vampire army burst into flames but didn’t burn to ash, to be blown away by the wind, as had happened when they had been struck by the silver. Instead they lay where they fell like charred logs..
The light slowly dimmed and, with a rushing vent of air, it turned dark.
Chapter 66
Nobody moved or said a word. The shock of the vampire apocalypse had pushed them to the edge of insanity and back. Mere words could not help them articulate what they had witnessed.
Rohleder blinked and purposely strode up to Stephanie. They held each other in a silent embrace as one by one the squad got to grips with the situation.
Borkin caught Rohleder’s eye and smiled as he nodded. If he ever doubted that Stephanie loved only the German, he was now certain. Rohleder closed his eyes gratefully and silently nodded back to him.
Iullia ran to the baby to make sure he was well. Scooping him up into her arms, she crushed him to her until it cried in shock and indignation. The baby’s bright blue, glass clear eyes looked up quizzically at her and she smiled to see that he was fit. She laughed as she turned to the squad,
"He’s fine," she called, thinking that they were interested.
Smith stood over the last remains of Maria. Was that really the end of it? Her charcoaled corpse held her arms to her chest and a small breeze stirred a piece of the hide that had bound the Book of Blood.
He bent down to pick it up, pausing before he touched it, expecting an electric shock or something of that nature. There was nothing, only the small burnt triangle of human hide from one of the corners. It fitted in the palm of his hand and was all that had survived the inferno of Maria’s death.
"Are you alright, Englishman?" It was Rohleder and Stephanie.
He stood up and nodded, wordlessly pushing the leathery scrap into Rohleder’s hand. "A souvenir, the last fragment of the Book of Blood.”
"What do I want with it?" he started, but Stephanie closed her hand around his and he put it in his pocket.
Smith looked back down at Maria and sighed. "Michael, life just isn’t fair.”
"I know James.” Stephanie answered instead. "We all know.”
Von Struck broke their languor. "Right, let’s get out of here before Ivan comes. We haven’t got ten million vampires to protect us anymore. Stephanie, would you go and see to Mordechai? He likes you so I don’t think he’ll bite your head off when you try to wake him.”
They picked up their weapons and started in the direction of the Castle.
Von Struck hovered over the scorched residue of what was once the beautiful woman Maria. He thought back to the first time he’d met her all those months ago. He remembered her exquisiteness and a flicker of sorrow momentarily caught up with him.
"I’m sorry," he whispered, thinking he was alone.
"Talking to yourself is one of the first signs of cracking up, old man.” It was Smith.
"Would you blame me?" he half-smiled.
Pausing a minute before answering, Smith said, "No, I wouldn’t blame anybody for cracking after what we endured, and we’ve still got to get back to Germany.”
"Are you coming with us to Germany?”
Smith hesitated before answering. "I don’t really see any alternative at the moment. Iullia wants to look after the child so I suppose I may tag along to make sure all is running smoothly.”
"Good, I’m glad there’ll be a good man going with the women. I’ll take my SS men straight up north, you head west. That way there’ll be no danger of Ivan thinking you’re with the SS if we’re caught. Keep the women out of Ivan’s path, James. Try to reach the Americans. Michael and Inselman will probably have to go with you too.”
Smith raised his eyebrows but said nothing. There didn’t seem to be anything to add. He nodded and wordlessly turned to walk back to the rest of the squad.
Von Struck looked back down to Maria’s remains as a sudden gust caught the flaked ashes under her ribcage and revealed a sliver of hard, brown leather. He knew instinctively what it was and bent down to scoop it up.
"The Book of Blood,” he whispered as he fingered its course texture. It was a splinter of the hide that made the spine
of the cover, and a giddy surge of taboo rocked him. Brushing the ash off, he put it in the inside pocket of his tunic and buttoning it up before turning to follow the others.
Borkin went to retrieve his rifle from the tree and his eyes fell on the camera. An idea hit him and he picked it up to take some photos of the charred corpses. He could easily sell a picture of burnt bodies and SS soldiers as the last action of one of the Atrocity Camps, or just tell the General he witnessed a mass execution of a village.
"Please, everybody, look at me,” he called to the troop’s backs.
They had just reached the sea of corpses as he shouted to them and he caught the moment perfectly as they turned - SS soldiers, exhausted and shocked, standing in a field of burnt corpses. Everybody would believe him now.
Michael’s eyes screwed up in shrewd deliberation. "I need a copy of that picture. Can you get one to me?”
"I don’t know, to be honest. I mean, you are the enemy. How would I explain that I’m sending a picture to an officer in the SS?”
Michael inclined his head in concurrence, "What if you just take some more pictures, remove the film and give it to me, then you could take some more?”
"I could. I’ve got more film with me. What do you want to do, take souvenir pictures?”
"No, I just need to send a few snaps to somebody.”
Borkin was intrigued, "Who?” he asked.
"Don’t ask" Michael smiled tiredly.
Von Struck surveyed the field of blackened carcasses and inwardly sighed. Nobody would ever hear of this battle. It would remain an unwritten chapter in the annals of history; forgotten and lost for all eternity.
He looked at the floor, shaking his head in disbelief at what had happened and at what they had achieved. They had won the last battle in a thousand year war. They had triumphed against evil and saved mankind, so why did he feel so cheap?
Iullia, with all her blind faith and innocence, had won it for them. They hadn’t won by tactics or bravery, they had been lucky and that seemed a dishonest and hollow type of victory. He felt almost fraudulent. "But aren’t nearly all victories subject to the will of the Gods?" he reasoned to himself and laughed softly as he realised he was, as ever, questioning his own merits and failings. Had he always disliked himself or only since he’d taken on the black uniform of the SS? He’d never know.
The Division of the Damned Page 35