At Grave’s End

There was noise behind me, coming from the basement. Screams, God, more screams. And the sounds of crumbling structure.This is it, the realization came to me.The end. No, I couldn’t stop it, but I could choose how to meet it.

With renewed determination, I held out my sword. “You keep looking, A

“To the lower rooms, mates, move!” a shout ordered. Two dozen members of what was left of our forces began to fall back. I fought my way forward, seeing Bones and Mencheres at the end of the retreating line covering the exit. Both of them spun and slashed in a dizzying display of violence that made them seem like they’d been transformed into machines. I’d always guessed that Mencheres, once stripped of his polite ma

Vlad grabbed me, forcing me backward. His hands felt hot, not cold like they should have from the freezing outside temperatures.

“Come along, they’ll join us soon,” he barked, propelling me with his body.

“No, I’m going up there!” I yelled, trying to wrest away.

“He’s the co-leader of his line so he’s where he should be,” was his reply. “But you’re coming with me.”

His fist landed a solid whack to the top of my head. Amid the wash of sudden stars, I ducked under his arm and lurched forward, brought up short by his hold on my hair.

All at once, everything seemed to move in slow motion. Vlad pulled me back, my feet slid out from under me, and faintly, above all the other noise, I heard a vindictive, satisfied laugh.

I saw six of those things follow after him, they’ve broken in!A

She’d been talking about Zero, who was on his way to Anubus’s cell. But while no one had seen or heard from Zero since, it was Anubus who was chuckling maliciously now. Anubus. Unharmed though he was chained to a wall with half a dozen ravenous creatures within chomping distance. How was that possible? Only one way I could think of.

“Vlad, do you have to be touching someone to burn them?”

The question startled him so much he quit manhandling me. “I have to have touched them before, and it takes longer, since it’s difficult to burn someone I’m not holding.”

“Difficult,” I breathed. “But not impossible?”

“No, not impossible, why?”

“It’s Anubus.” I raised my voice because the adrenaline began to surge. “Patra’s object isn’t an object at all. Don’t you get it? He’s the ultimate Trojan horse, and Bones nearly got killed delivering him! She meant to finish Bones off in the ambush-and then the rest of us later, since we carted Anubus back home with us. Patra knew we wouldn’t kill him, who offs their most valuable hostage?”

Vlad started to smile. He released me and spread out his hands, holding them over his head. All around us chaos reigned.

“He’s too far away for me to reach him before I’d be cut down, but let’s see if I can save the day.”

“Go on,” I replied, whirling to clear the area around him. “Impress me.”

His hands began to glow, not red, but blue. They lit the hall with an eerie navy-violet light. Sparks flew off his hands, showering my hair as I continued to slash at the oncoming zombies.

Someone screamed, high-pitched and agonizing. I threw a heartless grin at Vlad as I recognized the voice.

“You’ve got his attention, Drac.”

“He’s strong,” Vlad replied in a strained tone. His hands were now completely engulfed in flames. “And must I remind you once more what my name is?”

“You arrogant…” thrust though the stomach of a snapping zombie, twisting and using all my strength to cleave him in half “…overpublicized…” wasn’t going to work, it clawed at the blade, and my God, these things were tough, “…showy old bat…” Crack! There went my head into the wall. If I didn’t have a split skull, I’d be amazed. “What are you waiting for? Aren’t you the king of all bogeymen? The legend children fear will devour them if they don’t behave?”

Two more zombies slipped past Bones and Mencheres, who were now almost back-to-back trying to stave them off.

“Come on, Vlad, live up to your reputation! If you can’t burn to deathone Egyptian vampire chained to a wall, how did you ever drive the Turks from Romania?”

There was a loud reverberating snap, like an electric transformer had blown, and then in midleap, the charging zombies fell to the floor. Out of the suddenly still forms, dirt began to appear, covering them, eroding over the creature’s bodies, until nothing but piles of earth remained.Out of the ground they were called, I thought,and back they went.

“You did it,” I panted, dropping my sword and ru

“Of course,” I heard him reply as strong arms lifted me up and crushed me against a chest covered with gore. “I’m Vlad Tepesh, what did you expect?”

THIRTY-ONE

FOR ABOUT THIRTY SECONDS I HELD BONES, feeling his mouth pressed to my hair, his hands gripping my back, and I was truly happy. Then there was the sound, a muffled moan, one I heard even above the other vampires’ cries of exultation. One that seemed to come from my very cells, which made sense, in a weird way.

“Mom.”

I dashed straight down the hall toward the back like I was being pulled by a string. Bones was close behind, but not as fast as I was, not this time. I fell to my knees when I saw her, draped across Denise’s lap, my friend’s hands compressing her stomach. Next to them lay a zombie, now only a pile of dirt, and my mother was as still and pale as death.

“No!”

It tore out of me even as I acted without thinking, taking one of my knives and slashing it across my wrist, tilting her head up, forcing my blood in her mouth. The blade cut right through to the bone and red liquid overflowed her lips.

She gagged once and weakly swallowed, bubbles trailing out of her mouth. I worked her jaw, forcing her to swallow again.

Denise was crying and praying at the same time. Bones pushed her to the side to crouch over my mother. He took the same knife I’d used and sliced his own wrist, holding it over her mouth, instructing me to begin chest compressions to force his blood through her body.

Blinded by tears I did, bearing down on her chest. Her heart had stopped beating right as Bones gave her his blood. Over and over I pressed on her chest while Bones blew into her mouth.

“That thing came in the room,” Denise choked, several injuries on her as well. “And it just jumped on her! I tried to pull it off, but it was so strong…Come on, Justina, don’t give up!”

Denise’s shout was so loud, it took me a second to hear the soft internal thumping below my hands. Then I sat back, tears flooding my eyes, as my mother coughed.

“Filthy…animal…get away…from me,” she rasped to Bones.

I laughed even as Bones snorted and sat back as well, pausing only to cut his palm and slap it over the slash in my wrist.

“Hallo, Justina. It appears we’re still stuck with each other.”

Denise laughed also, and then she wiped at her eyes and looked around.

“Where’s Randy? Isn’t he with you?”

My smile faded. Belatedly I realized that Randy wasn’t in the room with everyone else. Seeing my mother bleeding to death had distracted me from noticing that before. I flicked a glance at Bones, who was frowning and getting to his feet.

“Why would he be with us?” he asked Denise in a sharp tone. “Randy was supposed to stayhere.”

Denise got up now, too, her face pale. “He wanted to help find whatever it was Patra was using. He said he wouldn’t leave the house. He’s been gone about twenty minutes…”

Bones turned and strode out of the room. I went to Denise and took her hands. Even with all the blood loss I’d suffered, mine were warmer.