Alex Van Helsing Voice of the Undead - By Jason Henderson Page 0,3

to be about sixteen or seventeen, her spiky yellow hair nearly flattened against her head. She smiled, thin lips coiling into a recognizable smirk that showed just a hint of fangs. Elle.

Alex drew the Polibow with his left hand, keeping his right on the throttle as the Ducati roared up beside him.

Elle rode alongside for a moment, watching him as they rocketed down the road.

“Where are you going?” she mouthed.

Alex looked into her blazing, dilated eyes and stuck there for a second. Suddenly he became aware of a shape in front of him, and he tore his eyes away to see a truck in the lane and had to hit the brakes and barrel around it. Elle mirrored him, coming around on the right and up alongside again.

“I’m a little busy,” Alex shouted, raising the Polibow and aiming at Elle’s chest. He breathed and fired, and the bolt sailed through the folds of her clothing.

Elle laughed silently. She twisted left and got up next to him, whipping out a long arm at his throat. Alex tried to move away and felt steely nails slash through his jacket.

He closed the gap again, coming side by side, the trees blurring behind her. The first time he had met her, Elle had nearly slaughtered his friends. Even among a psychotic race, she was crueler and wilder than most. He fired again, missing. Over her shoulder he saw a sign go by, GLENARVON, 1 KM.

Now Elle was reaching into her robe and drawing something out. For a second he thought it was a weapon, dark and round. Then he saw it was moving.

Elle tossed whatever it was toward Alex. It landed on his arm—brownish red and potato-shaped, and then he realized it was something coiled, and uncoiling. Alex gasped as the potato unrolled into five small, slithering, wormlike creatures.

He got a look at them: red worms, about a hand’s length, with tiny legs and black eyes, and spinning, churning teeth at the nose.

The worms began crawling over him and Alex swiped off one of them. Elle was laughing as another one latched on to his sleeve and burrowed in, its small body rising in the air as it twisted. He could feel the pressure of it as it bore down, like someone punching into his sleeve with a dowel rod.

What the hell are these?

Don’t lose it. Breathe. One at a time.

Alex looked into Elle’s eyes. She was enjoying his panic. So: Don’t panic. Let her enjoy it. The worms were crawling on him and she was waiting to see if he would lose it or if one of them would get to his skin first. In that moment he raised the Polibow and shot.

The bolt caught Elle in the shoulder. She squealed, slamming sideways and tumbling off the bike, the red Ducati sailing end over end in Alex’s rearview. He lost sight of Elle, but knew he had missed her heart. She’d be back.

One of the worms was at his neck and he grabbed it, pulling it away, feeling a pinch on the skin as it had already latched on. It squirmed in his glove, trying now to bite into his fingers, and he flicked it away.

The other one on his sleeve had made its way through, and Alex tried not to scream as he felt it make contact with his forearm.

What do you have?

Alex kept his right hand on the throttle even as the worm chewed and began to bite, and reached back with his left hand to find a glass ball. He brought the ball out, feeling its weight and the slosh of holy water inside. Alex smacked the ball on the front of the bike, cracking it like an egg, and brought it back, letting the water stream over his sleeve and body.

The worms hissed, their bodies bubbling and drying up. The one on his arm shriveled into a husk and Alex saw it blow away into the wind as he rounded one more turn and saw the main gate of Glenarvon Academy come into view.

Chapter 2

Within two minutes Alex had ditched the motorcycle in the woods across the road from the main gate of Glenarvon Academy and covered it over with leafy cut limbs. He switched to a regular bicycle, a more appropriate vehicle for a freshman heading into town, and pedaled through the gate. He was a little shocked to see his hands were shaky. The Scholomance had come for him. He had been genuinely surprised, and Alex Van