“I can’t. The chains…”
Mr. McKenzie tutted. He pulled a key from his trouser pocket and bent down. “If you try and run, I will cripple you. Do you understand?”
Eliza nodded. She heard McKenzie curse as he tried to get the key in the lock, and then the shackles around her feet were gone.
McKenzie stood in front of her. “Remember what I said, girl. Now walk.”
The beginning of the tunnel glowed under the flickering light, causing the stone walls to dance before her eyes. Eliza shook her head and tried to clear her vision, but whatever her father had drugged her with had numbed her senses and showed little sign of wearing off. The stone walls soon disappeared into a pit of darkness, but Mr. McKenzie’s footsteps still echoed behind her.
A sea breeze howled through the gangway like a tiny tornado, and Eliza pushed her hair from her face. Another wave of nausea swept over her and she stopped, reaching for the wall for support.
“What’s wrong?” Mr. McKenzie said.
“I feel sick. What did my father make me drink?”
Mr. McKenzie chuckled. “Just something to stop you using that mind magic on us. Now keep moving.”
One narrow corridor after another, until the sound of the ocean echoed around her and the hard rock beneath her feet softened. Had she reached Readymoney Cove? Her feet sank into the wet sand and she stumbled, her tortured body too numb to hold her up any longer. She fell forward, and her face hit the sand with a hard slap.
“Oh no you don’t. We’re nearly there.”
Not far from where Eliza lay, she heard the waves roll across the shore. She tried to focus, but her hampered vision was no match for the dark evening.
“Come on. I said get up. I ain’t carrying you.”
“I can’t.” Eliza grabbed a handful of sand.
Mr. McKenzie hooked his arms around her waist and winched up her limp body. Eliza didn’t fight him, not even when she noticed a darkness blacker than the night itself swelling behind him. Then, alongside it, another Shadow grew. Eliza froze. The Shadow had found her. She opened her mouth to scream a warning, then realised the Shadow’s timing could not have been more perfect. She felt the sand slipping between her fingers, and sprayed it out like a fan across Mr. McKenzie face. He cursed, his hands coming to his face. This was Eliza’s chance. Around her, the all-too-familiar objects morphed into one Shadow.
Eliza shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts, and then ran as fast as she could.
CHAPTER FIFTY
Teeth chomped towards Billy’s arm.
Another mouth swooped down upon his neck.
Billy twisted his upper body, elbowing the zombie away from his collar before turning on the second one. He wrapped his bicep around its neck, locked his arm, and squeezed. To his surprise, the corpse’s head popped clean off its shoulders.
Two more carcasses attacked from the front. Billy turned to run, but three more blocked his retreat. Billy skidded to a stop, his police shoes sliding on the gravel. He swallowed and tried to catch his breath. With five against one, he was clearly outnumbered. Still, he raised his Asp and readied himself to fight.
Holding position, he waited for the monsters to shuffle in a little closer and circle him. Then he spun on his heel, and whirled the Asp. It breezed past the first two zombies, and narrowly missed the third by inches. It never reached the fourth. Instead, it collided straight into the palm of a hand and stopped dead.
Billy glanced up at the person standing before him. Timberlands and baseball cap, just as he had seen at Eliza’s house. He took a breath, and swallowed. “Roman?”
Roman released the Asp. “Behind you.”
Billy turned, but Roman moved quicker. His fist demolished the first skull, and penetrated the second as though he were punching through paper. Without looking, he swung back, pushed Billy to one side, and ripped the head off a third zombie. He wiped the goo from his hand and turned back to Billy. “You’ll have to move quicker than that if you want to stay alive.”
“Where the hell’d you come from?”
“Let’s leave the explanations until later, shall we?”
Blood trickled from Billy’s shoulder, and suddenly he had a new focus. “Shit. They’ve bit me. I’ve been fucking bitten.”
“You’ll live.”
“But I’ve been bitten.”
Roman looked him in the eye. “And you will live. They are the un-dead. That’s all.”
Billy straightened. The Asp felt heavy in his hand, and he tightened his grip. “Who the hell are you?”
But something behind Billy now held Roman’s attention.
Billy turned. In the centre of the car park, through the darkness of night, a Shadow rose from the ground. “What now?”
“Do you have a way out of here?”
Billy pulled the car keys from his pocket and nodded towards the hybrid.
“Good. Then go.”
“But my sergeant is still inside.”
“With Eliza?”
“What? No. Eliza’s gone.”
“Gone? Shit.” Roman stared at the Shadow, then towards the hybrid. “Get to the car.”
“But George…”
“You go back in there after him, you will die.”
Billy didn’t move, and it was Roman who forced him towards the car. Billy squeezed behind the steering wheel, watching the Shadow grow to well over six feet. “What the hell is that thing?”
Roman opened the passenger door and jumped in beside him. “It’s come for Eliza. She must be here.”
“George said she left.”
“Then it doesn’t make sense.”
The Shadow engulfed the little hybrid, cutting them off from the rest of the car park. The vehicle rocked side to side, and the back window smashed in.
“Jesus Christ, do something.”
Billy turned the key and the engine sparked to life.
The Shadow swept into the car and the back seat darkened. Slowly, the view in the rear-view mirror disappeared from Billy’s sight and the darkness surrounded him, wrapping round his neck and squeezing his throat so tight that he felt the blood vessels in his eyes bulge. The Shadow tried to pull him over the driver’s seat, but Billy grasped hold of the steering wheel. The pressure around his neck intensified, and his grip slipped from the wheel. Then, the Shadow was inside his mouth. Billy thrashed, his body arching towards the ceiling. He heard Roman shout something about having Eliza’s blood on his clothes, and then felt his police shirt being ripped from his body. The Shadow retreated from his mouth, and the hold around his throat loosened. Billy slumped back into the seat, coughing and spluttering, his hands at his throat, trying to massage some air back into his lungs. He whipped around to check the back of the car, but the Shadow was gone, and outside Roman was charging across the car park at top speed, tossing the shirt as far as he could throw it. The Shadow followed it, pouncing where the garment landed.
Roman raced back towards the car. “Drive!”
Billy did.
CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
Pain arched throughout Eliza’s body as she fled Mr. McKenzie and the Shadow.
The soft sand crumbled beneath her weight, making each hampered step more difficult than the last. She felt the surf splash across her bare feet and soak the hem of the gown. Waves crashed against her legs, their coldness disorienting her further. Behind, the irate voice of Mr. McKenzie yelled her name. Eliza glanced over her shoulder, but darkness eclipsed the beach, just as it had the sun. She couldn’t see the Shadow, but she knew it was there…somewhere, ready to attack.
Freezing water rose higher around her legs the further in she waded. Past her ankles, around her calves. Waves lapped her knees, her thighs, around her waist. She had no idea where she was going, or how the hell she intended to get to dry land again.
Something clenched her ankle, hard and tight, and before she could stop it, a fearful cry left her throat. She tugged her leg in a b
id to free it, but the clasp tightened and pulled her beneath the ocean surface. Salt water flooded her mouth and nostrils and she coughed, swallowing more water. Her flailing arms reached the surface again, and the night air hit her face just long enough to allow for a single gasp for breath before the ocean pulled her under once more. Water stung her eyes, and pockets of air escaped her lips until her lungs emptied. She kicked, but her robe entwined her legs like ivy, its heavy material weighing her down and making her fight for oxygen that much harder.
The grasp around her ankle tightened. Desperate, Eliza kicked again, clawing for the surface until she was released. Then, cold air hit her skin. The ocean mist rolled into her ears and up her nose. She spluttered, treading water as best she could, allowing the waves to carry her to shore until she felt the sandy bed beneath her feet once again. She hovered for a while, the water sloshing just beneath her jawline, and coughed the remainder of the sea from her throat.
“Eliza.” Mr. McKenzie called her name like a father would his child. “I can hear you out there, girl.”
Mr. McKenzie was on the beach; if she could see him, maybe he could see her. Her fate boiled down to one thing: How did she want to die? She waited, too frightened to move, and yet aware that something, probably the Shadow, was in the water waiting to drown her.
“Eliza?” Mr. McKenzie called again.
Eliza contemplated her dilemma. If she continued to shore, the promise of further torture and eventual death awaited her at the hands of her father. But if she stayed put, then what? Something below the water had already attacked her. Eliza ducked lower, the water bobbing under the tip of her nose. A wave rolled in behind her and broke, engulfing her entire body. Her head disappeared beneath the water, and again the sea attempted to take her. The wave passed, and Eliza found the surface again. But gone was the evening freshness she’d breathed before. Now, a decayed stench filled her nostrils. She coughed the last of the salty water from her throat, and parted her wet hair.
Something moved on the surface beside her, and the rancid smell grew stronger. Eliza rubbed the water from her eyes. Whatever it was, it didn’t look like the Shadow. She backed away, the tips of her toes struggling to keep contact with the seabed. The shape followed her, pale and gaunt, until a man looked her in the eye.
He lifted out of the water, a shredded shirt hanging from his shoulders, a faded skull and crossbones evident on his upper arm, and stopped in front of her. One side of his face had been eaten away by the inhabitants of the sea, the remaining skin whiter than snow itself. Seaweed tangled his black hair, and a small crab scampered from the socket of his missing eye and fell onto his shoulder.
The zombie pirate moved closer.
Eliza waded back.
He reached for her.
She ducked his hand.
Beneath the water, something different reclaimed their hold around her ankles. Eliza screamed, but the pirate’s bony fingers grabbed her face, cutting short her cry for help. His skeleton teeth chomped towards her while, below the water, something clawed up her body and bit into her thigh. Eliza screamed and water flooded her mouth, washing to the back of her throat. Her body jerked in response, and like a frenzied dog she fought for the surface. Salty water flooded her lungs. Her chest tightened. Weightlessness took over, and other than the rabid jerks from the zombie pirates clinging to her, she felt peace.
Then cold.
CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
Headlights lit up the road like a flare brightening a stormy night.
Mile after mile, the hybrid police car navigated the chasms and raced through the tunnel of trees, leaving their ashen trunks to disappear into the darkened forest.
“Anything out there?”
Roman shook his head. But then again, with the speed the cop drove, he’d be lucky to see anything that wasn’t a blur. He reckoned another half mile until they’d hit the main road and open fields – then he’d be able to see more clearly. That’s when he’d make the cop pull over.
“You sure?”
“I’m sure.” He wasn’t.
Billy punched his foot on the brake. Tyres screeched, and the car skidded to a halt in the middle of the road.
A little premature for Roman’s liking. “Is something wrong?”
Engine still running, Billy twisted to face him. “What in hell was all that back there?”
Roman sighed. “What bit?”
“What bit? Dead people were trying to eat me. A bloody Shadow tried to choke me. I want to know what the hell is going on!”
Roman sighed for a second time. He had neither the time nor the inclination to explain this whole story again. He turned to the window. Outside, tree tops swayed, the storm not letting up.
“Hey, I’m talking to you.”
Roman turned and gave what he considered one of his more hardened glares.
Billy whacked the steering wheel, and saliva spat from his mouth when he spoke. He didn’t seem put off. “What the fuck is happening?”
The cop was beginning to irritate Roman. If it wasn’t for the want of needing a car… “It’s all because of your sister.”
“Eliza? Why?”
“Look, I don’t have time—”
“Tell me, goddamn it.”
Roman scanned the area outside. Still no sign of trouble. “She’s to be sacrificed.”
“She already told me that shit. It didn’t wash with me then, and it doesn’t wash with me now.”
“And that’s the attitude that will get her killed.” Roman looked at Billy. “She’s to be crucified.”
“Why? Who by?”
“That old guy who works for your father.”
“Davis? He’s like a hundred and ten.”
“Yeah, well, it seems he wants to live a little bit longer.”
“You’re wrong. He practically raised Eliza. She’s like a daughter to him.”
“Believe it, don’t believe it. I don’t care. He’s going to kill her.”
“By sacrificing her? You’re insane.”
“Maybe. But it’s the truth.”
“I don’t even know why I’m having this conversation with you.” Billy pushed the stick into first gear. “I’m taking you over to Liskeard. You can spend the night in their cells while I go look for her on my own.”
“Hey.” Roman slammed the gear back into neutral, and the engine stalled. “You know what you’ve seen tonight, right? That ain’t shit I made up. That Shadow? That’s been sent to kill your sister before the old man can get to her. And why? Because the old man’s managed to gather all four pieces of the True Cross, and now he’s re-creating the Crucifixion. Eliza’s blood is going to open the Gateway to Heaven. The Shadow needs to stop that from happening.”
“By killing Eliza?”
Roman clenched his jaw.
“So what are the dead people trying to do? Hitch a ride up?’
“Now you’re beginning to annoy me.” Roman forced his building anger to calm. “Every time the old man puts a piece of the Cross together, history starts to repeat itself.”
“You’re referring to the Crucifixion?”
“You’ve seen the moon, the storms, the quake. The dead are just another duplicated event.” Roman removed his hand from the gearstick. “You want to help Eliza? Then we need to stop the old man.”
Billy stared at him. Behind his eyes, Roman saw the cogs turn as he digested the information. “Is this happening everywhere?”
Roman shook his head. “Just within a certain distance of Eliza.”
“So you know where she is?”
Roman glanced out the side window again. Still no sign of zombies or the Shadow, but he didn’t want to stay put for too long. “I wouldn’t be here if I knew where she was.”
Billy glared at him. “Who the hell are you?”
“Does it matter?”
Billy’s eyes widened, and Roman watched his hands tighten around the steering wheel. The cop’s next words c
ame through taut lips. “What’s your involvement in all this? What’s in it for you?”
“Who said I’m involved?”
“You kidnapped Eliza.”
“Kidnapped is a little strong.”
“I know you’re involved.”
“This conversation is tiresome.” Roman cast another quick glance at the forest outside. “Are you going to drive?”
“Answer my goddamn question.”
Roman took a deep breath. It occurred to him to ditch Billy and steal the car. It wouldn’t be that hard, after all. But he needed the cop. Brother or no brother, when the time came he may need a diversion – that was, if he ever found Eliza. “I’m trying to save her.”
CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
Water spurted from Eliza’s mouth.
She opened her eyes. Above her, nothing but a dark, starless sky. The cool night swept across her wet body and involuntary spasms took hold, but all she could do was lie there and shiver.
The imposing bulk of Mr. McKenzie leaned over her, blocking the moon from her view. Water dripped from his drenched hair and splashed onto her face. “You stupid little brat.”
“Where’s the Shadow?”
“Around. It can’t find you now.”
“Why?”
“You’re freezing cold… So is your blood.” He hoisted her off the sand and threw her over his shoulder. One arm locked around her thigh, and Eliza hung there, her hands brushing against his arse as he walked.
Half a dozen mutilated corpses littered the sand behind them, their heads smashed in, similar to that of Jason Devlin in the hospital morgue. Eliza remembered them biting her legs, but either due to shock or the fact she was freezing to death, she could feel nothing anymore. Waves rolled across the sand and filled her captor’s footprints before washing back out to sea, and the strangest thought struck her that on any other day, it would be a beautiful thing to watch. But not tonight. Tonight, she was being taken to her death. She felt Mr. McKenzie’s arm disappear from around her thighs, and his shoulder tensed as he pulled himself up a step. Eliza’s body slipped off his shoulder, but Mr. McKenzie grabbed her waist and secured her back against his neck.
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