That was the first moment such a thought had dawned on me. Did the vampire we had come to slay actually exist?
Hoarse gurgling sounds echoed softly from the other side of the crypt. The ghouls were coming for me. I had gifted them with the taste of blood and now they wanted more. A strange sound echoed farther away, like the scraping of a sharp object being dragged along a stone. A few seconds later, the sound occurred again, but at a different location in the cemetery, and then at another spot. The rough scraping noises reverberated faster, making an ear-piercing painful sound. I had no idea what was responsible for those noises, but the ghouls had not made them and seemed to have ignored them.
I hurried to the bottom of the steps. Grabbing the gate, I was alarmed by how close their growls were overhead. They were trying to squeeze their heads through the iron bars of the fence. Ghouls were smarter than zombies, but not overly intelligent. Their hunger controlled them more and desperation set in their eyes as they peered down at me. Nothing registered in their minds that they could have simply followed the fence until they found the stairs. Instead, they sought to get through the iron bars.
I pushed the small iron gate open. It didn’t budge. I yanked on it and shook it hard. Bits of rust cascaded off the bars. The hinges squeaked. The ghouls lunged at the fence above, reaching through the bars with their long pale arms, and swiping their claws uselessly. I was thankful they had not figured out how to follow the fence to get to the stairs.
I shoved the gate, pushing my weight against it. It moved slightly where the latch connected but still resisted. The ghouls growled louder, sometimes moaning from their anticipation. I was a big enough meal to satiate all of their hunger, provided they reached me, but I was just outside their reach.
“Forrest!” Penelope yelled. “Are you okay?”
All five ghouls stiffened and turned toward the direction of her voice.
Well, I was. I cringed, shook my head, and grumbled.
The ghouls scurried along the fence, tugging the bars as they moved. When they reached the end of the fence, one noticed the stairs and hobbled down two of the steps. Its long winding tongue curled. It bore sharp jagged teeth. Instead of a growl, it seemed to purr for a moment with contentment and a sense of accomplishment.
I took a step back from the gate and kicked the door latch hard. The gate swung inward with screeching hinges. I raked the leaves inside the door with the side of my boot, as many as I could. I glanced up the steps. The five ghouls descended. Their black eyes grew wider and more menacing, possessed by their insatiable hunger.
They turned their heads slightly and their jaws popped loudly. Their mouths were larger and their jaws came unhinged so they could take larger bites and rip the flesh from my bones. Coldness rushed through me, and suddenly the thought of being impaled by one of the massive sharp thorns in the passageway had seemed a much better fate than how I pictured myself dying now.
Chapter Fifteen
I rushed into the crypt, kicking more leaves into a huge pile near the door. In hindsight, I don’t know why I had thought this would be a good plan. Leaf debris was a quick burst of heat and fire, rapidly escalating and plummeting in strength almost as fast. The rising flames poised a greater chance of causing the ghouls to flee rather than harming them. I needed a longer lasting fuel for the fire to destroy the ghouls. There wasn’t anything useable inside the crypt. The entire sepulcher was made from stone. No wooden rafters. Even the coffin was carved out of stone.
The first ghoul charged through the door without hesitation. I sidestepped and cupped my huge hand around the back of its hairless head, lifting it into the air. I turned and smashed its face against the stone wall. Bones crunched. Its forehead sunk inward and bits of shattered teeth showered down. It yelped. I flung it hard against the opposite wall and it collapsed to the cold floor.
I pulled my dagger as the next two dashed toward me. I kicked the one to my left, knocking it out the door into the other two. The other ghoul leapt into the air and landed on my chest. Its rotten breath reeked of death and decay. It opened its large mouth wide enough to take off my head. I staggered backwards, trying to avoid its mouth, especially the teeth, when I noticed it had raised its clawed hand into the air. It swung, aiming for my throat, hoping—I guessed—to gash open my tenderest flesh to spill the greatest amount of blood.
Before it flailed downward, I toppled, falling fast to the hard floor. I rammed my dagger into its gut as I hit the floor. It squealed in pain. I grabbed it by the throat and squeezed, pushing the dagger deeper. Black blood leaked over my hand. It gurgled for a moment and desperately raked its claws across my arm. The thickness of my coat prevented a deep gash, but it had cut me. The scent of my blood invited the other three to rush inside the tight quarters.
I yanked my dagger free and flung the ghoul toward its three companions, missing, but I rolled and pushed myself to my feet. The ghoul I had smashed against the wall writhed on the floor. It wasn’t dead but at least it wasn’t a threat yet.
I moved to the other side of the stone coffin and faced the four ghouls. I pushed the coffin lid aside. The coffin was empty. It was a shame the vampire wasn’t lying asleep or dormant inside. I had once executed a vampire with the indiscriminate help of hungry ghouls who had torn him and his offspring apart. It would have been good to use this vampire as a distraction while I escaped the crypt. That wasn’t an option though.
The ghouls formed a semi-circle, facing me, and slowly moved inward to trap me in the corner. I could have run for the narrow door, but not without at least two of them latching onto me with their sharp claws and trying to bite me. With the large number of sharp teeth each ghoul had, it didn’t take but a few strong bites to cause rapid blood loss for a victim. The slightest bite, however, could infect the person and curse him or her to slowly transform into a ghoul. These were other reasons why I hated encountering and killing ghouls and another situation where I missed Jacques. Werewolves were resistant to most undead infections. I was not. So even though I greatly outsized them, I couldn’t risk one sinking its teeth into me. And besides that, I needed to survive so I could get Penelope and Father down off the roof. I believed it would take the three of us together to get through the tunnel safely.
I hefted the stone coffin lid upright and held it so the long narrow side was horizontal, and I used it as a shield. The stone lid was heavier than I estimated, and I strained to carry it. My arms and back ached.
The ghouls seemed confused with me holding it. Fighting the burning sensation of fatigue building in my biceps, forearms, and my hands, I growled with ferocity. The noise partially startled them for a moment, perhaps they thought I was transforming into some sort of beast, but I took the opportunity of their hesitation to rush at them. With the lid I pushed two of the ghouls across the floor and smashed them against the wall. The other two were too swift to get pinned or trapped. One leapt over the lid while the other scurried underneath.
I left the heavy coffin lid against the wall with the two ghouls struggling unsuccessfully to get the weight off of them. I turned quickly to face the escaped ghouls. One of the two still had the arrow protruding from its head. I grabbed the arrow shaft, pulled, and swung the ghoul into the air. It bounced off the far wall and dropped beside its injured companion.
The last standing ghoul leapt onto my back, growling and slashing. I winced as the claws cut through my overcoat. I tried to reach over my shoulder, but the wicked creature stayed outside of my reach and refused to let go. Fiery lines of pain surfaced where its claws had penetrated through the leather material and into my flesh. I had never heard an instance where the claws spread the ghoul infection, but I supposed it was possible. Something for me to worry about later.
A second before I would have rammed my back against the wall in an attempt to crush the ghoul, a line of brightness cut through the shadows. Air whooshed past my head, the ghoul fell slack, and dropped to the floor. A fiery arrow smoldered in its head. Smoke drifted from its ears, no
se, and mouth. Its body twitched and spasmed before growing stiff. I glanced toward the door. Penelope flashed a broad smile. “Can’t let you have all of the fun.”
“Where’s Father?”
“Still on the roof. I had to jump. I needed to know you were okay.”
I winced, rolled my shoulders, and turned my back toward her so she could inspect the lacerations.
“You have a lot of cuts but none are deep or look severe.”
I sighed. “What about disease from their claws?”
“I don’t know.”
“We need to get out of here,” I said. “But I don’t want to leave these creatures alive, just in case others come to the cemetery seeking to slay the vampire. I had thought about using the leaves to start a fire, but it might not be hot enough to kill them.”
“They’re not getting around too good right now.”
“They’ll recover, given time.”
The two beneath the coffin lid were trapped between the lid and the wall. The two against the other wall were panting and sprawled out on the floor, but neither made any attempt to crawl. The one she had shot with the flaming arrow wasn’t moving. If anything the fire had obliterated its brain, but I doubted its body wouldn’t eventually try to become mobile again.
“I have an idea,” I said.
“What?”
I carefully grabbed the brain-dead ghoul by one foot and tossed it into the empty coffin, and then I grabbed the two against the far wall and placed them inside as well. I hurried to the heavy stone lid. “When I lift this, throw them into that coffin, too.”
She nervously glanced to the ghouls and then to me.
“Both are probably suffering from broken bones, but be quick and make certain you don’t get bitten. Are you ready?”
Penelope pursed her lips. “Ready? Forrest, you could ask me that a hundred years from now and I still wouldn’t be ready to touch one of them.”
I gave her an even stare as I reached for the lid. “They’re hideous creatures. I agree. But leaving them where they can recover and kill again isn’t something any Hunter should do.”
She nodded. We were both obligated to tasks neither of us enjoyed.
I heaved the stone lid, and she grabbed each ghoul by one foot and dragged them like burlap bags of sand. She put them into the coffin, and I slid the lid across until it was flush with all sides.
I arched and stretched my back, and groaned with some relief.
“You think they can slide the top aside to escape?” she asked.
I gave a slight shrug. “I doubt they can budge it.”
“Will they die?”
“All but one.”
Penelope gave an incredulous stare. “They’ll eat one another?”
“That would be my guess. They cannibalize whenever there’s no other choice.”
Panic widened her eyes. “And there’s five of them in this cemetery, which is closed off from the rest of the town. They don’t appear to be lacking for food.”
I nodded. “For ghouls, they looked quite healthy, if one can measure such a thing, which means a lot of people have come into this cemetery on a fairly regular basis.”
“My father?” She closed her eyes and clenched tight fists.
“He’s a Hunter with intellect. There’s a good chance he found a way to escape.”
“I hope so.”
“Sometimes, hope is all we have.”
Outside the scraping stone sound echoed again.
“What is that?” I asked.
“I’m not sure. Your father and I heard it earlier.”
“You didn’t see what made it?”
She shook her head. “We should help your father down and find where that vampire is. It’s obvious he wasn’t in here.”
“What if there isn’t a vampire in this cemetery?” I asked.
“You don’t think there is?”
“I’m not certain, but I’m beginning to wonder.”
“Why?”
“The whole place seems like a giant trap,” I replied.
“For what purpose?”
“I don’t know, but these ghouls patrolled the cemetery. The thorny giant vines make a quick escape almost impossible.”
“Are you proposing that we leave without looking for the vampire?”
I shook my head. “No, we need to collect the bounty if he is here. A quick search should tell us.”
I scooped up a huge pile of leaves in my arms and covered the lid of the coffin.
“What are you doing?”
I grabbed another armful of leaves and piled them around the coffin. “Roasting the ghouls.”
“That will work?”
“It won’t hurt to try. With enough leaves burning around the stone coffin, it will be like a brick oven, magnifying and trapping the heat inside. They should cook.”
“Provided they don’t escape?”
“They fear fire. Even if they slid the lid over a little, they’d see the flames and scrunch away into a corner. But I don’t think they have the strength to move the lid.”
Penelope gathered a lot of the leaves and piled them on top of the lid. When the leaves completely covered the coffin, I struck a long match against the stone wall and lit leaves at each corner of the coffin.
The fire rose.
I grabbed my crossbow and walked to the door with her. Once we stepped outside the door, I yanked the small iron gate back into place. The latch clicked shut. I picked up a thick piece of iron that had fallen from the overhead fence and bent it around the small gate and the bar where the latch had been welded. Even if the ghouls survived the fire and pried the lid off the coffin, they’d never get through the gate.
The stone-scraping sounds reverberated again, only faster and closer. She and I exchanged glances.
“Forrest!” Father yelled. “Come quick! I need your help!”
Chapter Sixteen
Penelope and I came up the steps to discover what was making the sounds. She limped slightly.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“I’ll be fine.”
“You hurt yourself coming off the roof?”
She shook her head. “No, it was when I tripped and fell earlier, but dropping from the roof didn’t help it any.”
The rough scraping sounds came from near the crypt where Father was. At first I didn’t see what was making the noise, until I saw what appeared to be large statues moving, but they weren’t statues at all. They were living creatures made out of stone.
Three gargoyles.
There was that moment of disbelief when I questioned if I was walking in a nightmare. Seeing these things made me stand silent. Captivated, I found myself admiring how these gargoyles moved effortlessly, being as heavy as they had to be.
Penelope placed her hand on mine. “When I said that I sensed evil earlier, it wasn’t the ghouls but it definitely is associated with them.”
The stone creatures were half my size but probably four times my weight. Each step or movement they made produced a stone-raking-stone sound. Their wings rose and shifted as they walked, helping them keep their balance. Due to their weight and size, they weren’t fast movers. At least they didn’t seem to be.
Father edged himself higher on the roof until he noticed us. He waved us toward him with desperation.
All three gargoyles were slate gray like the tombstones and the crypt buildings. They had noticed Father and were approaching his building.
I glanced at Penelope. “What do you know about gargoyles?”
She shook her head. “Only that they’re not supposed to be alive.”
“These apparently are.”
“I see that, too.”
“How do you kill something made from stone?”
“You cannot kill stone since it isn’t alive.”
Good point. “But something has brought them to life.”
She nodded. “Some type of magic or they might actually be demons trapped inside the stones.”
“T
hen these are more your type for slaying rather than mine.”
“No, I’m seeing them for the first time like you.”
Father glared at me. “You two going to stand there and gawk or help me down before they kill me?”
“Be patient, Father. They are stiff and slow and barely moving. You’re probably safer being on the roof than for us to get you down.”
The smallest gargoyle squatted, stretched its wings, and propelled itself into the air. It landed with a thunderous crash on the rooftop not far from where Father stood. The vibrations from its landing caused Father to stumble. He grabbed the ledge and peered back at its demonic face.
I was stunned. These stone creatures had seemed sluggish, and I had underestimated their agility and speed.
“Do you mind mulling through your theory again, son?” he said. “Don’t take too long thinking about it because this thing is going to flatten me.”
Father edged his way to the corner of the roof. He was about to jump. I can’t say that I blamed him, but doing so would probably kill him.
I ran toward the building. The other two gargoyles noticed me and stamped their feet in rapid succession, making an incredibly loud noise while shaking the ground. If their actions were meant to frighten me, they were partly successful. However, I was more frightened about Father jumping and killing himself than I was for what danger I was placing myself into to rescue him.
“Hold on!” I said.
He made an odd face. “To what exactly?”
“Patience,” I replied, rushing toward the side of the crypt.
“She left me about five minutes ago, son. Don’t think she’s coming back anytime soon, either.”
“Jump!”
Father looked at me questionably. I still wasn’t quite close enough to catch him, but by my estimate I’d be under him before he reached the ground. He glanced over his shoulder. The gargoyle wobbled in its gait toward him. It widened its muscular stone arms like it wanted to hug him, but he and I both knew it was going to embrace him and crush him to death.
Forrest Wollinsky: Predestined Crossroads (Forrest Wollinsky: Vampire Hunter Book 3) Page 10