The Division of the Damned (45 page)

Von Struck pressed the issue. "Think about what we’re asking you to do, old man. This could endanger your whole family and friends. Everybody that comes into contact with us could end up in Siberia if the Russians find out.”

The farmer paused for a moment to gather his thoughts and to weigh his doubts. "I’ll show you the way. We’ll go at night and we’ll stay in the buildings left by the German families who left before the Russians came. They’re all burnt out so there shouldn’t be any problem with unwanted visitors.”

Michael nodded. "Sounds like a good plan to me so far. What about food?”

The farmer shrugged and held his arms out wide
.
"Take what you need. There won’t be anything left when I get back anyway, so at least this way I’ll be making sure the damn Communists don’t get hold of it."

Henning walked up to the farmer, holding out his hand
.
"You’re a brave man, Farmer. What’s your name?”

He smiled.
"I’m not brave, it’s just that I’ve finally realised that there’s nothing left here for me. I’ll come with you and try to find my sons. They should come with me to Germany when this is all over. My name is Daniel, Daniel Rensing.”

Michael held his hand out too. "Herr Rensing, when you’re in Germany, please
look
me up and, if I can help you in any way, I will.”

He nodded and they set about emptying sacks to put their food in.

Two days later the v
ampires attacked them in the woods. Schneiderat and the farmer Rensing rode at the front of the squad to clear the way. Their eyes were fixed on the way ahead, looking for Russians, when suddenly two indistinct shadows swooped down on them from the trees. Like silent meteors, they landed heavily on the two and only the sickening thud of the collision gave any clue as to what had happened.

Although the moon was only a quarter full, their eyes, sensitised by the dark off the forest, picked out the attack before them. Combat instinct took over as they pulled their rifles to fight off the assault. Von Struck pushed the satchel with the
Book of Blood
around to his back and started to scan the night. In the clear winter sky abo
ve them he made out the vampire
s
’
silhouettes through the branches as they dived for the attack. He subconsciously estimated their numbers and reckoned it was an advance reconnaissance party numbering about twenty.

With no time to dismount and pick targets, they fired intuitively into the falling shadows, keeping one eye closed against the muzzle flashes to retain their night vision.

Rohleder hit his first target despite his horse’s panicked movement and quickly moved onto the second. In controlled bursts of two to three rounds, he hit one after the other, fully concentrating on killing everything that presented itself.

This, their first combat encounter with the vampires, was the acid test of the silver bullets. Each hit physically jarred the creature and, in the blink of an eye, the beast would burn from the inside out, crumbling to a fine ash that fell around them.

A vampire dropped down on Von Struck from behind and wrestled to bite him. He felt the creature’s festering, hot breath against the back of his neck as it pulled his head in position and he gagged in spite of his rising panic. Rohleder, riding next to him, smoothly put his rifle to the beast’s head and pulled the trigger but the gun misfired.

"Fuck!
Bad girl.
Helga never did that to me."  Without missing a beat, he rammed the muzzle into the creature’s eye socket with all his strength. The barrel bored into its eyeball, popping it with a loud squish, and the beast screamed loud enough to puncture Von Struck’s ear drum. With a wrench it let go and flew off into the cold, starlit heavens.

As swiftly as it had come, the attack stopped and the battle-dazed troop looked around them to get their bearings.

Von Struck, who had said nothing throughout the skirmish, made a quick headcount. "Gruhn, Inselman, in fact all of you, keep an eye out in case a second wave comes at us.
Rohleder,
thanks. Henning, how’s Andreas looking?”

Wolfgang stood over the prone body of Schneiderat, s
haking his head. "He’s not dead.
"
A
silent pulse of relief rushed through them all, only to be dashed by Henning’s next words
. "B
ut he’s been bitten.”

Nobody said a word. Von Struck moved to stand next to Wolfgang.

"You know what that means, b
oss,” Wolfgang whispered. Von Struck nodded. The farmer was also bitten and the pair lay side-by-side, groaning softly as their bodies prepared for the change.

Michael broke their reverie. "Let’s go. It’s not far now.”

"Andreas has been
bitten.
T
hat means we’re a man down,” Von Struck quietly informed him.

"What would you rather do then, turn back and come with reinforcements after the war?” Michael challenged.

"I thought we needed ten men to be successful in this mission.”

"And now Andreas is out of the picture, we’re down to nine,” Henning reminded him.

Michael looked from one to the other,
then
said
, "Look. Let’s get out of here. They may come back. I’ll tell you later how I think we should proceed.”

They wordlessly nodded and the squad remounted to ride off.

Von Struck waited until they were gone before putting two bullets in Schneiderat and Rensing. He strapped the rifle and sword to his horse and mounted up. He suddenly had a thought and felt for the satchel on his back and, groaning, he rode after them.

At dawn Michael put his thoughts to the men. "I know Czerolka said we need ten men for this, but he hadn’t gambled on the silver bullets. We all saw how well they worked last night, and I for one feel a lot more confident with this extra fire-power that we have.”

They nodded among themselves as he spoke. They had been more than pleasantly surprised with the effects the silver had had on the vampires and the feeling of convinced excitement had spurred them on through the night.

Michael knew this and had earlier decided to strike while the iron
was hot. "I say we ride there
—
it’s not far now
—
take our positions under
the tree and let them come to us for their Book. When they attack, we’ll take them out in waves. It’ll be a turkey shoot with the vampires wearing the feathers."

Nobody said anything aloud but Michael knew they were for the idea. Von Struck spoke up. "There is only one problem. The vampires have the Book.”

All eyes
turned to him, so he continued.
"A vampire attacked me from behind last night. I thought he wanted to bite me but he must have been after the Book.”

"It’s gone?" Michael asked incredulously.

"There wasn’t a lot I could do about it.”

Again, nobody spoke for there was nothing to say.

Michael broke the reverie
.
"The Book was important but there is still a chance that we will meet them for battle at the tree.”

"How?
As I see it we’ve lost our bait,” Rohleder said, rubbing his eyes. They were all tired and, as the thrill of the combat was wearing off, it was beginning to show. The moment was broken and Michael knew it would be an uphill struggle to convince them again.

"Didn’t Czerolka explain to you all about the Winter Solstice?
" He didn’t wait for the answer.
"Tomorrow is the 22nd of December, the first day of winter. This is known as the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year and the date that the Sun God would be at his weakest.”

"I’m lost again.
I thought we’d moved on from the Sun God thing to the Bible thing," remarked Rohleder, puzzled.

Michael knew they were all tired and losing interest but he had to convince them to go on. "We have, but Lilith and the Dracyl are still slaves to their original beliefs, the belief that Utu the Sun God has cursed them. Now that they’ve got the ten names in the
Book of Blood
they’ll want to end the curse.”

Von Struck nodded in comprehension but stayed silent. It was up to Michael to animate the men.

"I’m sorry,
General
," Nau put in
.
"
B
ut why will they come to the tree? I forgot the hocus pocus stuff when I was trying to learn how to fight with a sword.”

"Which we now find out we didn’t need to learn because we can shoot them with our guns,” Gruhn sarcastically added.

"Yes, you’re
right,
we didn’t need to learn how to fight with swords. But imagine this, imagine that we came here and found that the silver bullets didn’t work? The fact is that we didn’t know then that they would work." He looked at their upturned faces
.
"And they will come to the tree because we have one of the names in the
Book of Blood
among us, the Englishman." All eyes turned to Smith.

"We are down to nine men but so are they and our trump is that one of our nine is in their list."

"But what if he goes over to their side to make up their ten?” Gruhn butted in.

Smith, who had made no real contribution, stepped forward. "No, I’m in our list and that’s how it stands.”

Michael nodded. "Like I said, one of our names is in their list and he’s on our side. With the silver bullets, the tree and the belief in our hearts, we can do
this,
we can beat these fucking bloodsuckers.”

A spark of interest lit their eyes and Michael pressed o
n. "We arrive there before dusk
—
”

"In the day?”
Nau exclaimed.

"There are no Russians here now. The vampires will have taken them. We ride there and set up position in an all round defence. We don’t need cover because they have no weapons that shoot, so we can simply choose our arcs and take them as they come. We need to hold out until dawn. After that, I think their chance of breaking the curse is shot.”

"How far away is it?" Henning asked.

"Thirty kilometres maximum.”

The silence hung in the air like dust particles caught in the sun. The decision to follow seemed as hard as asking for a first date and nobody was willing to make that move. Von Struck read the situation and decided for them. "Right, we’ll sort the horses out, get our heads down and move out at 1400 hours. Rohleder, sort out a stag list and I don’t want the graveyard shift again. Is the
re any of that salted pork left?
I’m starving.”

Chapter 57

The Dracyl smiled to himself as he watched Maria dancing around the library. She held the Book aloft, laughing with unbridled joy, twirling around and around.

"Are you happy now, Demon? Will we beat the curse now that you have your Book?”

"Oh yes, yes, a thousand times yes. Tomorrow the world will be ours for the taking and no amount of mortal interfering will stop us.”

The vampire who brought it back was the only one of the pack to survive and the story he told about the bullets that killed his squad was very disturbing indeed. "Tell me again what happened, dog. What do you mean they were shot?" he roared at the quivering beast that lay face down in front of him. "Nothing can kill
us,
nothing they shoot at us can kill us!”

"Except silver
… "
Maria let it hang in the air.

"Silver!"
He turned on Maria. "Since when have the Germans used silver bullets?”

Maria clutched the Book to her bosom and lent forward as if to impart a great secret
.
"Since they
decided to fight against you, M
aster,” she whispered.

As the words sunk in, his anger boiled and he struggled to contain it. He watched her a while as she cooed at the Book as if it were a baby, his mind in overdrive.

"They’ll be at the tree tomorrow." She smiled slyly at him. "They think they can kill you at the ceremony.”

"How do you know that?" he challenged.

"Why do you think they’re here, Master?" she said, smiling sweetly. "They’re here with silver bullets and the
Cronica Insangerata,
on the eve of the ceremony. They want to stop you and I wager they’ve brought your brother with them.”

The last was too much for him. He sprang from the chair in a blinding rage and kicked at the head of the prone vampire. With a sickening crack, his head exploded and it sprang up clutching its broken skull.

The c
ount's body started to swell as he transformed into his bestial alter ego. "Get out!” he bellowed at the wounded beast as it ran out, howling in pain. He followed it outside and flew up to the roof of one of the barrack blocks, screaming his rage at the perceived treachery of his twin. Bulging and wild, like a wounded lion, he roared into the night and his animal cry echoed from out of the darkness a thousand times over.