Alex Van Helsing The Triumph of Death - By Jason Henderson Page 0,57

the contacts to his corneas. Alex quickly got to his feet, searching for Astrid.

She was holding her own, using her staff against the vampire, but she was evenly matched. Alex brought up his Polibow trying to draw a bead on the vamp, but they kept spinning. He wanted to shout to Astrid to give him room, break off, and let him just shoot the foe.

But suddenly, something grabbed his arm tightly and nearly tore off his hand, and as Alex’s arm whipped wild, the Polibow spun away. He was dragged off his feet, his arm threatening to detach from his shoulder, and as he swung around, nearly sliding under a great wooden wheel, he saw Elle, at the reins of a wagon-like coach with a wide bed and several vampires, commanding one of the Queen’s skeletal horses.

Alex heard a fwoosh sound and looked to see Astrid plunging her staff into her vampire’s chest and sending it into oblivion. But Elle was yelling something, and even as Alex untangled himself from her whip, he saw two more vampires, fast and huge, leaping for the grave.

One of them dropped into the grave and had the coffin up in a second, and the other grabbed it, lifting it like something that weighed nothing at all. He was running with it now, and Alex saw Astrid go after him.

The vampire leapt up onto the carriage with the coffin and dropped it into the back, and Elle snapped the reins again. The carriage was beginning to pull out and Alex ran after it. Elle looked back at him, catching his eyes.

“They’ve got the coffin,” Alex said into his Bluetooth. “I’m going after them.”

“I’m taking care of this one,” Astrid answered, and Alex looked back to see Astrid squaring off with the other vampire, whom Elle had abandoned in order to get away with Allegra’s coffin.

“Sangster, what’s your situation?” Alex screamed as he ran. A thrill of grave fear rushed through him and Alex set it aside. Concentrate on what’s in front of you.

Gotta move fast. Alex ran behind the bumping wooden trailer, which was painted in the reddish-brown colors favored by the Scholomance and the new Queen. There were iron bars across either side of the trailer and the coffin was rattling against them. Alex tried to speed up, judging where he would grab a bar. He would have one chance to get on.

He leapt, hitting the top bar and gripping, and then lost it, falling, before grabbing the next bar down. Immediately his body yanked forward, the toes of his shoes dragging and kicking up grass and stones.

The vampire in the back saw Alex now and came forward, reaching for his hand to pull it free, and Alex heaved his body up, getting a leg over the back. The vampire whipped its head and aimed for Alex’s shoulder with its teeth.

Alex felt the teeth glancing against his jacket as he rolled, smashing against the vampire’s legs. Alex grabbed the vampire by the feet and pushed upward as he tumbled underneath him, and the creature sailed off the back of the trailer and into the grass.

Alex climbed to his feet, fighting to keep his balance as the carriage barreled past the front of the church and headed for the road.

Up ahead, they were about to hit the edge of the artificial night, and Alex wondered what would happen when they did. Elle whipped the reins and the skeletal horse picked up speed, and then as they reached the wall—

The projection wall pushed back to accommodate them. Not bad, Alex thought. Even in this limited demonstration, the spell allowed the Queen’s vampires to carry night with them.

They were on a road now, the carriage careening straight down a street where cars zipped around them. Where were they going?

Alex crawled forward and tried to decide what to do. Throw the coffin off the trailer? It would shatter into a thousand pieces. He might even lose the body, the whole point of the operation. He needed to stop the carriage.

Without a Polibow he couldn’t shoot. He had a long, dagger-like stake, but he wanted something to throw. He seized a glass ball and threw it at the back of Elle’s head. The jolting carriage killed his shot, the ball slamming into the dashboard of the carriage. Holy water splashed up and hissed against Elle’s face and she looked back at him through gritted fangs.

Now the great enclosure of night seemed to stretch out, and Alex saw their path—there