Felix was studying Cat. "Do they all say the same thing?"
"No. We all have something different. Mine's even shaped different, it's flat, like a paddle."
"What does it say?"
"My name."
"Is that all?"
"No. It says something else on the other side."
"What?"
"I don't think you're ready for it."
"Try me."
Cat's grin widened. "Okay. It's the answer to the question: 'How do you like your stake?'"
"Huh?" said Kirk.
"What does it say?" Felix wanted to know.
Cat's eyes were devilish. "Medium Rare."
They had begun to laugh when the first of the stained-glass windows just blew into the room whizzing glass like shrapnel into the furniture and the far walls and then that smell - that smell of decay - and Felix thought, Oh, my God, my God! They're here!
And he got to his feet and spun toward the sound and dragged out the Browning and for just an instant all was calm and eerie and... and impossible, because they had just been sitting here, just sitting here laughing and talking and ready to go, to get out of this, out of all of it.
And they all were there, frozen with surprise and dawning fear, their mouths open and their eyes wide, frozen and unbelieving and so tired. And then the beast who had burst within them as if thrown through the window shook its shaggy head and reared up from its place on all fours in front of the window and those blood-red eyes shone on them and the black mouth opened those glistening fangs and it hissed...
Felix raised the gun to fire as the second window exploded and the glass flew again and there were screams and then another explosion and then another and the whole wall of stained glass collapsed into the room and the smell was there and the brutes were clambering through with their dead rotting skin through the broken glass and shattered window frames and the hissing, the hisssssing filled the house of God and their air and Felix felt spears of pain on the side of his neck and then the blood running down and he knew the glass, the fractured, flying glass, had got him and he fired at something through the crashes of debris just as the next screams began.
It was... who? One of the bishop's men... Bryan? Was that his name? One of the monsters had crashed through on top of him and now was on all fours above him, like some slavering undead bear, and Bryan screamed and cried and tried to pull himself out from under and the brute held him there, fast, with one rotting hand on his chest and Bryan screamed again and again and scrambled desperately backward, flailing his hands and feet but he could get no traction on that beautiful thick carpet and the beast above him...
Did nothing.
None of them were moving! They seemed stunned and stunted and almost paralyzed and two or three of them were holding their heads with rancid hands. Hurting. Hurting.
But there were so many! So many of them!
"It's this place," cried the bishop. And he rose up and strode forward, the robes of his office swaying out around him, and he grasped the great cross about his neck and held it aloft.
"This place!" he shouted triumphantly. "They cannot bear the House of the Lord!"
"Get them back!" roared Jack Crow.
Felix turned to see what Jack was saying and saw them, saw the women, saw her! The women were here - she was here, My God My God!
"No!" shouted Felix. "Put them... put them in the entry hall and close it...
"Yes!" echoed Crow. "And lock the doors and... Cat! Get the Blazer! Move it!"
And that's when Bryan lunged backward and the black nails at his throat tore the skin and the red blood welled out and the dead bear awoke and his gray lips spread wide and the fangs started down.
Felix and Kirk fired simultaneously and the monster flipped backward from the impact, howling and screeching those awful sounds and the others, the others! So many of them! They woke up too! They lunged toward them - And the bishop. The bishop roared back at them!
"Back! Back, you children of Satan! Back and be purged!"
And he walked toward them, holding the cross in front of him like a goddamned pistol or something and they