Everything went dark.
I guess I was only unconscious for a minute, because when I came to, nothing much seemed to have changed. I pushed against the floor, struggling to sit up. My whole body ached in ways I’d never experienced and my legs just wouldn’t work. I looked around – the first thing I saw was Henry. He lay on the ground a few metres away, like a bundle of rags on the floor. His head was turned towards me and there was a livid red mark on one of his cheeks emitting a dripping line of blood. His eyes were closed and I could make out only the faintest rise and fall of his chest.
My attention was taken by a shadow falling across us both. I couldn’t help but look up – right into the nasty, slavering face of the beast.
There was no mistaking the meaning in its maddened eyes and waving tentacles. I could imagine it thinking: Got you. And probably something like: Supper! Or possibly just: Yum!
Just as I was beginning to wonder what it would feel like to be swallowed by that great mouth, the creature reared up with a long drawn-out hiss.
At first I thought it was just getting ready to strike – then I saw that there was something on its back. Bella! She’d stuck a long sharp object into one of the eyes on its back! The sharpened stake somehow amused me, considering the whole vampire and stake thing, and what with the combination of that and the shock of being nearly eaten, I started to giggle uncontrollably.
Then everything seemed to happen at the same time. The Beast, hissing in pain, thrashed around until it managed to dislodge Bella from its back, and dragged itself in the direction of a second tunnel, opposite the one by which we had entered. Bella hit the ground, but rolled and regained her feet with all the gracefulness of a trained stunt person, and ran across to where Henry lay. He was beginning to stir and Bella helped him to stand.
I distinctly remember I was still laughing when a large group of the Snagov supporters club (aka the Order of the Dragon) burst into view. At which point I stopped as suddenly as if someone had thrown a bucket of cold water over me.
To say they looked mad would be an understatement. I suppose that if you had been waiting who knows how many years for a creature you worshipped to wake up, only to not just miss the event but to see it making a swift exit with a nasty wound, you would be furious as well. Not even their fear of Bella stopped them. They charged right at us, yelling all sorts of expletives.
By now I was on my feet and, though still a bit unsteady, I got ready to face our attackers. Henry joined me, looking pale and not entirely himself. Bella took one look at the advancing army and hissed, “Quickly! The Beast must not get away. If it hides in the tunnels we will never find it. You have to follow it! Leave these… ‘creatures’ to me.”
I must have been really caught up in the moment, because part of me wanted to stand and fight this group of mad idiots. Henry was hesitating too, but then Bella roared, “Go!” and showed us her vampire teeth. We sprang into action.
It was at a sprint that we reached the tunnel entrance where the Beast had disappeared and headed into the darkness. I risked a quick glance back to see Bella being swallowed by a scrum of burly men, but I knew we had to press on. We had to hope Bella would be okay. The sounds of the fight faded away as we ran further. Somewhere ahead of us the Beast waited. All I could think of was that if Dracula’s daughter could not stop the thing, how were two twelve-year-old boys going to do it? Then I remembered that one of the boys was Henry Hunter. I just hoped he had not finally met his match…
ONE BITE TOO MANY
We staggered through the maze of tunnels. The heat, as well as the all too familiar stink of the Beast, became more and more intense. The tunnels would have been pitch-black, were it not for the trail of luminous slime the Beast left behind it, which gave off enough of a glow to prevent us bumping into the walls. It felt a bit like we were following a huge, rabid snail… with fangs!
Henry was uncharacteristically silent as we ran. Maybe he, like me, was thinking about Bella, wondering if she had survived the Order of the Dragon’s attack. I kept reminding myself that she was, after all, a vampire. That meant she couldn’t be killed, right? Unless, of course, someone got to her with a sharp stake.
“Dolf, is it my imagination, or is it getting lighter up ahead?” Henry asked, pulling at my sleeve to interrupt my gloomy reverie.
I peered into the intense darkness of the tunnel. I might as well have been staring at a solid wall.
“Not so that you’d notice,” I said.
But as I strained my eyes to see where we were going, I realised I did notice a slight lessening of the gloom. But it wasn’t the Beast’s trail that was brightening. I turned to look at HH. He was this new source of illumination! It wasn’t that he was truly glowing – not like something out of a sci-fi movie. More of a dim buzz of light, so I could see him outlined against the dark.
I was about to mention this when Henry stopped suddenly. I could definitely see his head tilted to one side, listening.
“Can you hear that?” Henry whispered.
But I couldn’t hear anything except my own heart.
“I think the beast is just up ahead,” Henry hissed. “I can hear it breathing…”
I frowned and listened harder, wondering if my encounter with the cavern wall had had more of an effect than I’d first thought. Was I going deaf?
“Come on,” said Henry. “And try not to breathe so loudly, Dolf. We don’t want to scare it.”
While I was still contemplating the completely crazy idea that we might scare the nastiest, most terrifying creature I had ever encountered in my life (at least until that moment, anyway), Henry dropped to a crawl and began to inch his way forward.
Trying to control my (apparently) noisy breathing, I followed.
The tunnel made a sudden bend to the right, and there ahead was an arched entrance outlined by a dim, reddish glow. Soon we were able to look down into another cavern, similar to the one where we had first seen the creature, only smaller. There, crouched in a natural bowl of rock, was the Snagov Beast. It had not grown any more handsome or friendly looking. The wound in its eye leaked something yellow and disgusting, and had obviously not improved its temper.
Like the larger cavern, the walls were semi-transparent, and behind them moved the hot, restless magma that kept the beast warm and the cavern dimly lit.
The heat was so great that it was a struggle to breathe, the hot air seeming to press in on my lungs. “Okay. We’ve found our favourite monster. What now?” I whispered.
Before Henry could come back with some witty reply we both jumped out of our skins. A hand touched each of us on the back. I’m afraid I let out a bit of a yelp, too, and I have no idea how Henry kept quiet – I wished I had his level of self-control!
Both of us spun round – to see Bella grinning at us out of the darkness. She looked a bit battered, her spiky hair distinctly ruffled, but actually almost as calm and self-possessed as ever. Until, that was, she saw Henry’s face – at which point she stopped smiling, leaned in very close, grabbed his chin and turned it into the light.
It wasn’t very bright in there, of course, but even I saw what Bella had seen. Henry’s eyes were glowing. This time the comparison was easy: they looked the way a cat’s do when you shine a light on them – with a kind of spooky reflection. They were also bright blue. The same blue as Bella’s eyes…
It was then that I noticed some other things. The livid mark on Henry’s cheek had gone and he looked somehow… well… different. His face was more angular, his cheekbones sharper and his teeth – there was just no other way of putting it – his teeth were a lot more pointed.
Everything fell into place. Together with Henry’s sharpened sight and hearing there was only one conclusion: Henry Hunter was becoming a vampire! I had come to expect the unexpected, but this was on a whole other level.
“The Beast. It bit you?” demanded Bella.
“Not exactly bit,” answered Henry, always one for getting the specifics right. “But I think thos
e tail-barbs hit me. I felt it on my cheek…” He put up a hand and touched the place where the nasty mark had been, then it crept to his mouth and I saw him exploring, very gingerly, his altered set of teeth. His eyes grew wider. It was one of the few times I’ve seen Henry genuinely surprised.
Bella pulled us both away from the entrance to the Beast’s lair.
“How do you feel?” she asked Henry. Her tone was light, as if she was more curious than concerned.
Henry didn’t answer immediately, and I could see he was trying to process this new information. Then he managed, “I feel… stronger. Like I could push over a house with one hand.” Suddenly he was grinning, showing rather more of those pointy teeth than I felt was necessary. “I feel… great,” he announced.
There was an awkward silence. None of us seemed to want to look each other in the eyes.
Then Bella said, “I am sorry, Henry.” It was the first time she had used his name like that, rather than referring to us both as ‘silly boys’.
“Thanks, but I’m not sorry at all,” said Henry, clearly already at ease with his new form. “I’ve never felt so alive, or so powerful. In fact, I’m really ready to take another crack at the Beast. How about it? Let’s show it that it can’t mess with us!”
Bella stared at Henry with a very strange look in her bright, glowing eyes. Then slowly, as if she was not really used to doing so, she really smiled. (Two sets of pointy teeth, I thought. Enough now.) She produced from somewhere in her leather outfit two long, thin knives. She passed one to Henry, who tested its weight and grunted in appreciation.
He and Bella looked at me, and, as if being vampires allowed them to act as one, said in unison, “Wait here, Dolf. Keep out of sight.”
I didn’t need to be told twice, but I also didn’t want to miss the climax to this adventure completely, not after everything that had happened, so I went with them as far as the archway, where I crouched down. I had a grandstand view.
You know those classic movies where the hero or heroine takes on a prehistoric monster or something nasty from the bottom of the sea? Like Godzilla, maybe? Usually, the monster in question does a lot of roaring and thrashing about, often demolishing buildings in the process, until it is finally dispatched by the hero. The difference here was that in the matter of Henry Hunter and Bella Dracul versus the Snagov Beast, there was very little sound at all. A bit of grunting, a fair amount of thrashing about, but very little roaring.
They both took off and literally flew across the space to land on the Beast – Henry at the head, Bella on the monstrous tail. I think it was more surprised than anything. They took advantage of this by hacking away at it with those long, thin knives.
Then they jumped and flew, attacking like a precision gymnast duo, as though they had worked out every move beforehand. It was clearly some kind of vampire thing, each knowing what the other’s next move would be before they actually made it.
They were so dominant at first that I thought the battle was going to be over quickly. But after a few minutes the Beast regained its senses.
Then, above all else, I could hear the sound of the beast’s tail hitting the wall with a kind of nasty wet-fish slapping sound, and the clunk as either Henry or Bella flew through the air and bounced off the walls of the cavern.
The Beast might have been ancient, and not long woken from a several-hundred-year sleep, but it was also immensely strong and very, very angry with its assailants.
Henry and Bella were still managing to land on the Beast’s back and attack it with their knives. But no matter how many wounds they inflicted, the Beast was unaffected. I watched the wounds close up in a matter of seconds, leaving not a mark. At the same time, the beast seemed to be getting faster. Its massive tail flicked this way and that, bouncing Bella and Henry off the walls like squash balls.
Then it hit me. The Beast couldn’t be killed. Any more than Bella (or, I suppose, Henry too, now) could. It was a vampire. And not just any vampire, but the first vampire – and undoubtedly the strongest.
In other words: stalemate.
The same thought must have occurred to Henry and Bella, because after about five minutes of battle they both jumped clear, running up the walls of the cavern (which freaked me out more than the flying did) to where I crouched.
Neither of them was even out of breath, and the light of battle quite literally blazed in their eyes.
“We aren’t going to be able to kill it,” said Henry.
“But we cannot let it go free,” said Bella. “The results would be terrible. It could turn everyone in the world into vampires.”
I tried to process that thought, quickly realising that I would be at the front of the line of those with new pointy teeth. Meanwhile Henry was doing what Henry always does best: thinking.
“If we can’t kill it we have to make sure it can’t get out of here,” he said.
“How would you suggest we do that?” demanded Bella, hands on hips. “Or do you happen to have a few explosives in your pocket?”
For a second I wondered if Henry did. After all, one of his (admittedly non-original) mottos was: Always be prepared.
“No, I don’t,” he said, frowning in thought. “But there might be a way…”
He turned back towards the cavern. The Beast was lying still, both pairs of eyes open (the wounded one seemed to have healed already), watchful for the next attack. But Henry wasn’t looking at the Beast. He was staring up at the roof and walls of the cavern, where the trapped magma moved sluggishly.
Bella followed his gaze. Then they looked at each other and Henry grinned.
“Hot rocks!” he shouted.
For a second I wondered if Henry had finally really gone mad, but he was already explaining. “If rocks are chilled enough for ice to form inside them, and then you heat them up, they literally explode…”
“But,” I said, my brain struggling to keep up, “aren’t these rocks hot already?”
“Exactly.” Henry beamed. “But if we make them cold, they’ll heat up again very quickly and… boom!”
“Um, okay… I guess. But how will we make them cold? I haven’t seen a fridge or freezer in our travels inside this cave.”
“No need,” replied Henry. “Is there, Bella?”
Bella shook her head.
When I rubbed my forehead, trying my best to work out what they meant, Henry took pity on me. “Vampires can bring the temperature of anything down. It’s why you feel a chill when a vampire enters a room.” His brow creased. “Although I’m not really sure why…”
“It’s so that we can preserve our bodies for long periods if we are unable to feed,” said Bella. She didn’t say “Silly boy”, but I could tell she was thinking it.
I realised I knew even less about vampires than I’d thought. “Okay,” I said. “So how do you do that?”
“Well,” said Henry, looking down into the pit where the Beast crouched, waiting for another assault. “I’m afraid we’ll need you to distract it, Dolf, to give Bella and I the chance to get over there and cool down the rock face. After that – get ready to run!”
I hadn’t for a second thought they’d need me – a mere mortal – to help with the plan, and if I’m honest, I didn’t much like the sound of it. I realised that since neither Henry nor Bella could really be harmed by the beast, they didn’t understand what it was like to be truly scared of it. All I needed was a blow from that spiny tail and… hello, Adolphus the vampire! But Henry and Bella were already on the move, so I had no time to question it.
As I was so used to, even at that early point in our adventures, I did what Henry asked and ran to the entrance to the cavern. I began to dance about, waving my arms and shouting rude things at the Beast.
For a moment it seemed not to notice. Then, with frightening speed, it struck. I had just enough time to jump back as its huge tail, with its deadly barbs, only just missed me. The Snagov Beast lumbered into full motion, and I yelled as it headed straight towards the tunnel mouth –
and yours truly!
As soon as the beast’s attention was taken, Henry and Bella launched themselves into the air, flying across the roof of the cavern towards the wall furthest away from the beast. They put both their hands flat against the heated rock face, and at once a network of icy lines spread out across the stone like frost patterns on a window. I remember being both impressed and horrified by their obvious powers.
But although my friends were playing their parts with ease, I clearly wasn’t doing my job well enough – the Beast had swung its huge bulk away from me and began to slither towards the furthest wall. As the waves ofice crystals spread from the four hands pressed against the wall, the cavern emitted a grinding sound. Job done, Henry and Bella sprang back across the cavern just as the Beast’s tail narrowly missed them. It let out a gurgling hiss of fury and turned quickly to follow us.
But it was too late. As the icy rock face heated up again, cracks split the walls and sharp bangs rang out as the stones exploded. I felt Henry and Bella grab my arms, pulling me away from the cavern and down the network of tunnels at tremendous speed, my feet not even touching the ground. Behind us we heard a massive roar. I happily imagined the walls collapsing inwards, releasing the trapped magma to overwhelm the Beast.
Perhaps it did happen just as I’d hoped, as we were all suddenly hit by an enormous wave of hot air, propelling us onward through the tunnels. Not something I would think every day, but I was glad I had two vampires holding on to me, because I would otherwise have been shattered into rather small pieces by the sheer power of the blast. Instead their bodies shielded me and I could hardly believe it when seconds later we were standing outside, at the entrance to the tunnels, shaken but (as far as I could tell) unharmed.
I took my first breath of clean, fresh air since we’d entered the Beast’s lair. It was just about the most wonderful thing ever. Better even than double chocolate fudge ice cream.
Henry Hunter and the Beast of Snagov Page 8