The Division of the Damned (52 page)

The circle of light grew and Lilith turned to face the vampires. She singled Vlad Dracyl out and triumphantly decreed
,
"Now Dracyl, now you will die. All your faith in me will be repaid by Utu’s vengeance against you.”

”What do you mean, Demon? Speak the truth to me or feel my wrath.” His body started to swell in rage and suddenly it burst into his angry alter ego. He circled the light like a tiger prowling around a caged prey, his entire body filled out like a bull elephant.

"Demon, as Utu is my witness, I will destroy you and eat your haggard body whole.
What do you mean? I want the truth! I want the truth!” He screamed the last and the blast of air he exhaled moved Lilith’s hair.

"Dracyl, you and your whole bloodline are victims to your own vanity and slothfulness. You flaunted the rules and folklore
laid
down in the Book, you fumbled the rituals and you believed that I would do all your running for you. I am not your
slave, V
ampire. I was never your slave.” This time she screamed at him and the vampires in the woods surrounding them began to howl and hiss their anger. "Did you think just because your brother was born to the bloodline that he would be able to sire a vampire? He was and still is human. You should have changed him, you fool. You let the Son of Utu sow his seed as a human and you let his mother live. The last name in the Book, Dragan, was born to
mortal parents. In name only is he one of the
t
en but he is not a vampire. Dracyl, you have only eight vampires here and that is not enough to end Utu’s curse, you pathetic fool." She laughed callously at him, loudly and without shame.

The c
ount made to step forward into the light again but stopped
himself
and roared his frustration at the humiliation. Lilith laughed ever louder and suddenly stopped. She pointed at him. "Now you will see what your ignorance has brought you. Tell your vampires to flee, for Utu comes and with him he brings death to all
night stalkers
.”

"Never!” he screamed and took a step forward into the light but in an instant his leg caught flame and he sprang back like a scorched cat.

"Utu,” he beseeched the sky
.
"Utu, kill this demon, take her for me and leave me only the gift of the day.”

He fell to his knees and clasped his hands in worship. "I want nothing more than to
hunt the day and to serve you, O
great and powerful Utu.”

Lilith spa
t at him from inside the circle.
"You worm, Utu won’t listen to dung-eating cowards like you. He respects only power and now you will burn for your failure to take him seriously.”

Slowly the circle around Lilith started to grow. It touched the Count’s boot and it caught fire immediately, but he stayed in the position of supplication, crying over and over again, "Utu, I beseech thee, take me into your bosom, I am your humble slave. Utu, I beg of you, I implore you.”

However, as the circle grew it took his whole body and he burnt as bright as the sun. Lilith screamed her triumph over the Dracyl and his line as Vlad Dracyl Blestamatul burnt to a cinder.

"Can you believe this?" Rohleder whispered to Stephanie. She shook her head slowly in mute disbelief.

Michael turned to the squad. "Listen, this is where we enter the realm of the unknown. Lilith will come for the
t
ree but we have to stop her. Get your swords ready.”

An unspoken current of preparation rolled through them all as weapons were raised and positions found.

All the while, the circle of light had developed until it reached the buildings surrounding the
t
ree. The bloodline of the Dracyl was engulfed by the fiery tide and they each burnt where they stood. Only the baby Dragan was
spared,
laid out on a blanket with the Dracyl banner embroidered on it.

Lilith turned to the woods to address the unseen vampires. "Vampires, you now belong to me. I will regain my power at the Tree of Life and we will rule the world. Through me you will once again hunt the day!”

She turned to the tr
ee and boldly stepped forward.

"She’s coming.
Swords, men
!
"
Von Struck commanded and, as one, they lifted their blades to face the demon.

Mordechai ran at her from the side. With breathtaking speed he sprinted on all fours and sprang to attack her left side.

Lilith calmly raised her hand as if to stop something and the werewolf hit an invisible wall. He fell to the floor and lay still.

"Stay under the
t
ree, men
,
" Michael muttered. "It’s here where we’ll kill her.”

She calmly walked into the perimeter of fires and they wordlessly spread out to encircle her. Henning, Rohleder, Michael and Borkin moved to the left, Von Struck, Nau, Gruhn, Inselman to the right.

Lilith didn’t waver in her pace and marched up through the middle.

"Now!”
Von Struck shouted and they attacked as one from six feet away. Again, she raised her left hand and all were instantly bowled over by an unseen wave.

Before any of them could regain their wits, she was past them and only Stephanie and Iullia were left standing in her way.

Stephanie hesitated and swung the blade above her head to charge. Lilith swept her away before she’d taken one step and impassively walked by.

Iullia stood alone
.
Lilith was a mere ten feet away. She stopped. Iullia blinked as Lilith began to chant in a foreign language, holding the Book up to the tree.

Suddenly a cracking sound from behind made Iullia t
urn her head. The t
ree was opening up and from inside the ever-increasing gash came a white light. It grew in intensity until she was forced to avert her gaze to avoid being blinded by the glare, and then her eyes fell on the sword that Stephanie had dropped.

Von Struck was the first to regain his senses and stand up. He looked around and saw that the vampires were now out of the woods and hovering on the outside of the circle of light. Their numbers astounded him and he fleetingly wondered at their audacity to take on such a vast army.

He turned to see Iullia pick up the sword that Stephanie had dropped. He looked for his own, saw it and ducked down to retrieve it.

Lilith, for the f
irst time, noticed Iullia. The t
ree slowly opened up and now, with Utu beaten and too weak to oppose her, nothing stood in her way. All that Lil
ith needed to do was enter the t
ree again and her powers would change the world.

From behind she heard Von Struck running up for another attack. She turned to meet him and held her hand up. One second he was running, the next he lay on his back, his chest heaving to suck in air. This time he found himself held to the floor by an invisible pressure. He turned his head to look at the squad and saw they too were all pinned
down.

"It’s over,”
he thought
. "W
e’ve lost." He struggled to sit up but the weight and pain were too much and
he listened in despair as the t
ree cracked open another notch and watched as the beam of light passed over him.

Lilith turned back to the t
ree. Iullia had picked up the sword and stood before her, the last barrier between herself and untold power.

"Out of the way, child.
I will let you live when it’s over, so don’t make me kill you now.”

Iullia, stone-face
d and intense, uttered one word:
"Never!”

She reversed the sword so it resembled a cross and, holding it in front of her, she knelt to pray. "
Pater noster, qui es in caelis
…”

The demon frowned as the sky rumbled an
d suddenly, as the hole in the t
ree started to close, Lilith realised what was happening.

"
Sanctificetur nomen tuum
…”

A bolt of lightning crashed on the horizon, followed by another and then another. Lilith followed the sound in panicked jerky movements.

"
Adveniat regnum tuum.
Fiat voluntas tua
…”

The hole finally closed and the creaking of moving wood silenced. Lilith’s face contorted in rage as she screamed her hatred at Iullia who blithely continued praying,

"
Sicut in caelo et in terra Panem nostrum quotiddianum da nobis hodie
…”

She moved towards Iullia but was suddenly blinded by the sword which now radiated a brilliant white light that pushed her back with its intensity. Von Struck found the pressure on him gone and, keeping his eye on Lilith, stood slowly.

"
Et dimitte nobis debita nostra, Sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris.
”

The whole squad was on its feet. They looked in awe at the vampires surrounding them. The army of the Dracyl was turning in on itself in fear. Knowing that the end was nigh, their gut instinct to being threatened was to attack and so, with nobody else within reach, they attacked their own.

"Somewhere in there is Jurgen,” Henning quietly muttered as he surveyed the mass of blood-crazed monsters setting about each other.

"And Bernd,” Rohleder added.
"God help them.”

The heavens once again rumbled and the light from the circle blinded them all. The vampires fell to the ground, wailing and howling in fear.

Lilith said nothing. She knew it was over. She held the Book up to the skies and turned to face the soldiers as Iullia intoned reverentially to
herself
.

"
Et ne nos inducas in tentationem
.”

James Smith looked at the face of the girl once known as Maria. He knew who she was but his heart tugged forlornly at her memory and he longed to protect and hold her. He hesitantly took a step forward but was stopped by a restraining hand on his forearm. Looking around he saw Von Struck wordlessly shaking his head.

Henning came up to the pair of them, his sword in hand. "Deliver us from evil.” He nodded as if approving of the idea and shouted to the men, "Deliverance!”

His call was once again taken up by the rest. "Deliverance!” they shouted, lifting their swords to the writhing vampire horde. "Deliverance!” they roared at the mute and broken Lilith. "Deliverance!” they screamed as Iullia spoke the last words of the
Oratio Dominica
to banish Lilith and the vampire plague to oblivion.

"
Sed libera nos a malo.
Amen
.”

The sky ripped open and the world turned a gleaming white. At first they closed their eyes to its brightness but slowly, one by one, they opened them again. The circle, the forest, everywhere was bathed in a radiant, cleansing light.

Smith looked again at Lilith who had now returned to her original body. Her bald, withered skull screamed in agony as the purging, heavenly fire gradually engulfed her. In one last beseeching gesture she reached a hand out to Smith and finally fell to lie in the inferno of her own damnation
.

All around, the vampires burned where they lay. Only the humans were spared the terrible fiery end and they watched in awestruck silence as the scene played out before them.

The vampire army burst into flames but didn’t burn to ash, to be blown away by the wind, as had happened when they had been struck by the silver. Instead they lay whe
re they fell like charred logs.

The light slowly dimmed and, with a rushing vent of air, it turned dark.

Chapter 66

Nobody moved or said a word. The shock of the vampire apocalypse had pushed them to the edge of insanity and back. Mere words could not help them articulate what they had witnessed.

Rohleder blinked and purposely strode up to Stephanie. They held each other in a silent embrace as one by one the squad got to grips with the situation.

Borkin caught Rohleder’s eye and smiled as he nodded. If he ever doubted that Stephanie loved only the German, he was now certain. Rohleder closed his eyes gratefully and silently nodded back to him.

Iullia ran to the baby to make sure he was well. Scooping him up into her arms,
she crushed him to her until he
cried in shock and indignation
. The baby’s bright blue, glass-
clear eyes looked up quizzically at her and she smiled to see that he was fit. She lau
ghed as she turned to the squad.

"He’s fine," she called, thinking that they were interested.

Smith stood over the last remains of Maria. Was that really the end of it? Her charcoaled corpse held her arms to her chest and a small breeze stirred a piece of the hide that had bound the
Book of Blood
.

He bent down to pick it up, pausing before he touched it, expecting an electric shock or something of that nature. There was nothing, only the small burnt triangle of human hide from one of the corners. It fitted in the palm of his hand and was all that had survived the inferno of Maria’s death.