Alex Van Helsing Voice of the Undead - By Jason Henderson Page 0,30

it there. The guard’s skin sizzled and he loosened his grip.

Alex took the opportunity to twist free and became aware of the blond man grabbing a long cane and walking toward him. The blond vampire whipped the cane up and hammered it against Alex’s chest, below his neck, driving Alex back. Alex grabbed the cane and twisted, unable to move the vampire but able to swerve out of the way. He reached into his coat for a stake but now the guard had him again, and was grabbing his collar and slamming him back against the seat. A puff of ash flew through the air, the remains of the guard Alex had killed. The living guard held Alex down and now opened his mouth, glistening fangs showing as his head whipped back and prepared to come forward to take out his throat.

“No, no, no,” said a soft, mellifluous voice. “That’s enough.”

The blond man with the cane froze, as did the guard.

Alex struggled to move, and the guard let him slip slightly.

The vampire in the peasant shirt was moving down the train, almost gliding, his—yep—leather loafers barely touching the floor. He stopped at the seat where Alex was pinned. Alex wondered if he could reach his stake. It was long and wooden and laced with silver, and it would do all the damage in the world. The guard had now let go of him, but Alex suspected a sudden move would be unwise.

The peasant shirt man folded his hands before his paunch, looking like a vampiric Buddha. “You must be Alex Van Helsing.”

His voice was smooth, low enough to reverberate in Alex’s chest, but with a strange high tenor hidden in it.

Alex found himself saying, “Yes.”

“We’re going to walk now, Alex. And you’re going to do something for me.”

Alex felt the guard completely relax his grasp and move away, and Alex sat forward. He needed to kill this man now. He needed to reach for his stake and try.

“We’re going to walk,” the man said again, “and you’re going to do something for me.”

Alex was rising and thinking he needed to reach for—something, there was something, or maybe not. Maybe not. Maybe what he was going to do now was walk.

“Let’s walk.”

They began to move down the car, toward the back, past the man’s card table. Alex was trying to think of what it was he was going to do, just now, and in the distance he heard the vampire in the peasant shirt say to the others, “One of us will be right back.”

Chapter 10

The train track spewed from the back of the train, red-brown and blurred, as Alex and the gray-bearded vampire stood outside in the cold and the wind. They were up against an iron railing and Alex was listening to the man talk and watching the long line of iron, watching the white gravel of the train track that melted with speed into a milky gray railroad, the dark, gray-blue evening sky stretching all around them, blanketing behind trees and ugly buildings, the view behind the view, the view no one looks at on a train.

“The truth, Alex, and we both know it, is that this is as good as it gets,” said the man. His voice was audible over the wind, close behind Alex, mixing with the wind. He didn’t need to shout; Alex was listening. “Relax.”

Alex put his hands on the rails, watching the liquid stream of iron and gravel, listening to the liquid words.

“Your father is very proud of you, Alex, because of what you have become. Everyone who has ever known you, all those people who secretly doubted you would amount to anything, because we all know that secretly they doubted you, whatever they may have said, now even they have heard of your skills and are proud of you. Everyone is satisfied. Your mother—whose talents were so great that she could move your father to turn his back on his life—even she is amazed. All of us on the brighter side, we too are amazed. You have surprised us all. This truly is as good as it’s ever going to get.”

Alex nodded. All of this made sense. He understood that people generally lied when they pretended to be proud of you, but he had been doing amazing things lately. “But I thought they didn’t know—”

“Of course they know,” the man said. “Of course your father knows. Do you think the greatest enemy of the brighter side is stupid? We don’t think that,