Alex Van Helsing The Triumph of Death - By Jason Henderson Page 0,73

strike me as basically a good, loyal follower, but not much more.”

Elle was looking through the window and held up a hand. A small group of vampires, all in red robes, was approaching the platform, and among them the Queen, on horseback.

Alex watched her. “Why were you so upset about the empty coffin?”

“What?” Elle looked back at him. “The Queen wanted it intact.”

“Oh, so you knew it would be empty.”

“No…” Elle shook her head. “You want to know my next assignment? I have to find that damn corpse.”

She doesn’t know that Allegra was taken alive by the vampires. Alex laughed, then. “Good luck. It’s dust.”

“What did you say?”

“I said it’s dust. Allegra Byron was taken by vampires. She probably became a vampire and was most likely killed a hundred years ago, probably by my people, and it was a dot on the register of vamps killed. The Queen will never get that daughter back, and you know what? They’re both lucky that way.”

“Taken by…what?” Elle seemed staggered by this, and Alex didn’t waste too long staring at her face. Instead, he spat.

Elle cursed and wiped the spittle off her face, and as she did so, the other vampire came forward, putting a clawed hand on Alex’s throat. “Settle down,” the vampire ordered Alex.

Alex brought one leg up and kicked the second vampire in his knee. The vampire fell and smacked into the wall next to him. As Elle began to reach out, Alex twisted his leg again, pushing his weight on the vampire’s neck. There was a heavy crack as the vampire’s neck broke and he fell against Alex, shaking and disabled.

The vampire began to moan, and Elle was yelling, “Shut up!” as she looked out the window. Finally she went over to Alex’s go package and drew out his Polibow. Alex prayed the bolt wouldn’t go straight through the vampire, and it didn’t when Elle shot; the bolt went in the vampire’s back and he exploded.

Alex felt fire and heat push up around his sleeve and he yanked, feeling his skin scrape as he pulled his hands free of the ice.

“What’s the matter, Elle, something not seem right?” he asked as he dove for his go package, feeling inside. He grabbed his dagger and rolled out of the way as she shot at him with the Polibow. “You wanted that body to be in that graveyard pretty desperately. Because when it wasn’t you howled like a wounded animal. I think that’s when you realized something you’ve been told wasn’t true. I saw you, and when that casket flew open, something stopped being real for you.” He had the go package slung over his shoulder and reached in, pulling out the jar. “But this is real, isn’t it? This is her hair. This is the last of her human life, and I’ll bet all memory of that has been ground right out of her.”

“Shut up!”

“And you know what? If she didn’t die, then Elle, I’m truly, truly sorry for what I’m going to have to do.” Alex kicked the Polibow out of her hands as she shook her head, distracted. Elle was not herself now; she was troubled and had been since she had seen that coffin fly apart in the streets of London.

He fired it once and watched as the bolt sailed straight through Elle’s shoulder, pinning her to the wall. She started twisting it, and Alex reached for Astrid’s bag. He needed to get her hands free; he needed a spell to melt her bonds. She had said she had one. Find the right spell. Find the right freaking jelly bean. He emerged with one of the spell cartridges that Astrid had made and held it up. “This one?” he asked.

Astrid shook her head. “No!”

Elle tried to yank the bolt free, but her flesh was sizzling against it. “Don’t move,” Alex said to the vampire, “or the next one goes in your heart.” He turned back to Astrid. “This one?”

Astrid nodded, and he ran over to her and held it near her hands. “Fire,” she whispered, and as Alex pulled his hand away she turned her head, and the spell erupted, freeing her hands in a melting blur.

Alex ran to the window. The Queen was talking now, at a dais in front of the satellite dish tower. She was raising her arms, chanting.

Alex gave the Polibow to Astrid. “Would you watch her?”

“I don’t get it. Why don’t we just—”

“Because we might need her.” He was digging through his