At Grave's End

I was in the mindless frenzy of killing, slashing out at anything that came near me. A mental numbness had set in, making me oblivious to my own injuries. My arms, shoulders, legs-every part of me had been chewed on. I wasn't even sure if I was still clothed; all I saw was red from both the rage and the blood in my eyes. That's why the matching emerald lights from my comrades was so helpful. At least when I saw them, I knew I wasn't alone. I certainly felt alone, with nothing but maddened zombies surrounding me, screams blending into a continuous white noise, and the ceaseless cleaving of my sword into the inviolable force of walking dead.

Vlad had an advantage. With enough time, he could grab hold of a zombie and burn them to pieces. They ran around like macabre torches, what was left of them, anyway. Still, it seemed he needed a solid minute of holding them to burn them into a less harmful state, which meant it wasn't the most productive method of dealing with them.

Every now and then, though, I'd catch an orange glow from the corner of my eye, hear indescribable screams, and know Vlad was still alive. Even more important was that periodically, I'd hear an English accent cresting over the sounds of death and pain, urging everyone on, taunting the creatures with gleeful scorn. Bones was still alive, too. Aside from that, I had no idea who was around me.

"Fall back, fall back!" the shout came. The thing in front of me was suddenly cleaved straight down the center into two halves. Between the falling forms there was Bones, almost unrecognizable in appearance, and I stopped my sword in midarc to avoid slashing his head off.

"Come with me," he growled. He tugged on my arm and then dropped it with a savage curse.

"Bloody f**king hell, why didn't you call for help?"

I didn't know what he meant, and arguing wasn't an option, since he yanked me to his chest with one arm and began a deranged hacking at anything near us with the other. My feet barely brushed the ground, swinging with his gait while I began to feel nauseous. Some of the haze lifted from my vision and when we entered the house and went at once down the stairs, I could see with clarity again.

Every item in the house had been smashed. I was confused, because the main fight was outside, but then it made sense. Not knowing what the mysterious object was, Annette, Tick Tock and Zero had been obliterating anything they could. There wasn't even a solid stick of furniture left, and the remaining vampires and ghouls streaked through the wreckage while holding off the hideous intruders that kept coming. This house had three underground levels and just two entrances to them. That was on the plus side. In the negative column, it also meant we had no way out.

Bones deposited me into the arms of Tate, who appeared out of the spattered forms. "Take her to the lowest level," he barked and turned away. "I have to cover our retreat."

"Bones, no!" I protested, ignored by both of them as Tate whirled and ran down the stairs. He shoved past people, muttering something that sounded like, "Your arm, your arm," as he went.

We went through a door where inside, several frightened faces stared at us.The kids, I realized.They're scared. Maybe this wasn't outlined in the Be a Vampire Snack brochure.

"Clear some space," he snapped to them, and fear from either his appearance or his tone made them quick to respond. They huddled together as Tate lowered me to the floor and withdrew a knife.

"Get off me, I have to get back out there-" I started, and then shut up.Oh. No wonder the two of them had given me such a look.

"Give me a little blood by mouth, if you can spare it," was what I said instead as I considered my arm. Well, what was left of it.Always the left arm, the dispassionate part of me mused darkly.First burned by Max, now this. If it could talk, it would never stop bitching at me.

It was hanging by a few stubborn ligaments, but most of it was chewed off to the bone.Now I resemble the zombies, it occurred to me. Some of their limbs were a dead ringer for this one.

"It'll hurt when it heals," Tate rasped, pressing a knife and my mouth to his throat. "Drink deep. I'll refill."

Normally I wouldn't have drunk from him, deeply or not, but these weren't normal circumstances. Bottom line was, I'd have to be back in fighting condition and fast, because the things outside weren't calling a time-out. With that in mind, I clamped my teeth over the puncture Tate made in his neck and sucked hard, biting to keep the wound open.

He made a noise I refused to diagnose, because I knew better. Cool blood filled my mouth and I swallowed, pulling harder, feeling shards of shooting pain erupt in my arm. His grip tightened until my upper body was glued to him, tilting his head back as I applied stronger suction. By the fourth pull my arm was in agony, but by the sixth, it had settled into a harsh tingling. At the ninth I was able to shove him back using two hands, panting as cravings for more awoke in me.

Tate's eyes were green when I looked at him, and it made me scramble back further, because his expression said they weren't lit up from battle.

I jumped to my feet, watching in amazement as the skin regrew on my limb, knitting back together like a scene from a science fiction movie.

The new blood coursing in me made me feel wilder, less human. Considering the amounts I'd no doubt lost, I was probably running on a sixty-forty mixture favoring the undead cells.

"Come on, soldier," I said. "We have things to kill."

Without a backward glance I ran up the stairs and back toward the fierce sounds of battle.

The vampires were clustered around the hall in front of the landing like an undead gauntlet. Every shrieking, unholy thing that tried to gnaw their way through them was set upon by all sides. It was holding so far, but one look told me the grim truth. This barricade wouldn't last long enough. More and more creatures kept coming.

I sprinted forward to join the fray when I collided with Annette. She was wide-eyed and frantic, almost not seeing me as she rushed to smash a figurine against the wall. When nothing happened but broken glass, she gave a raw cry of despair and turned to seek out more objects.

"Annette!" I had to shake her to get her to focus on me. "Where are Tick Tock and Zero?"

She gestured in no general direction. "Tick Tock is on the other side of the house, Zero went to Anubus to attempt to beat the answer out of him, but I saw six of those...things follow after him, they've broken in! I heard Zero scream, and then I went this way. Oh, Cat, I can't find it, I can't find it!"

Whatit was didn't require asking. This place was coming apart at the seams.

"Just keep at it, Annette, we'll find whatever it is. We'll hold them off-"

She shoved me. "You don't understand. It's on the news! Graves emptying, rumors of things crawling from them...all headed in this direction. We're in an isolated area, but not that isolated. Don't you see? Patra doesn't need all of them to kill us; very soon she'll know exactly where we are, because all the zombies are a sign pointing the way!"

Shit! Didn't it ever stop? So our situation had upgraded from awful to doomed. Surprisingly, I was more angry than anything else. That bitch didn't deserve to win. We might not be innocents, but she was far worse on many levels.

There was noise behind me, coming from the basement. Screams, God, more screams. And the sounds of crumbling structure.This is it, the realization came to me.The end. No, I couldn't stop it, but I could choose how to meet it.

With renewed determination, I held out my sword. "You keep looking, Annette, no matter what. I'll keep killing. If that bitch wants us, she can come and get us."

"To the lower rooms, mates, move!" a shout ordered. Two dozen members of what was left of our forces began to fall back. I fought my way forward, seeing Bones and Mencheres at the end of the retreating line covering the exit. Both of them spun and slashed in a dizzying display of violence that made them seem like they'd been transformed into machines. I'd always guessed that Mencheres, once stripped of his polite manners, would be frighteningly lethal. I wasn't wrong. He looked like a living nightmare.

Vlad grabbed me, forcing me backward. His hands felt hot, not cold like they should have from the freezing outside temperatures.

"Come along, they'll join us soon," he barked, propelling me with his body.

"No, I'm going up there!" I yelled, trying to wrest away.

"He's the co-leader of his line so he's where he should be," was his reply. "But you're coming with me."

His fist landed a solid whack to the top of my head. Amid the wash of sudden stars, I ducked under his arm and lurched forward, brought up short by his hold on my hair.

All at once, everything seemed to move in slow motion. Vlad pulled me back, my feet slid out from under me, and faintly, above all the other noise, I heard a vindictive, satisfied laugh.

I saw six of those things follow after him, they've broken in!Annette had said.And I heard him scream...

She'd been talking about Zero, who was on his way to Anubus's cell. But while no one had seen or heard from Zero since, it was Anubus who was chuckling maliciously now. Anubus. Unharmed though he was chained to a wall with half a dozen ravenous creatures within chomping distance. How was that possible? Only one way I could think of.

"Vlad, do you have to be touching someone to burn them?"

The question startled him so much he quit manhandling me. "I have to have touched them before, and it takes longer, since it's difficult to burn someone I'm not holding."

"Difficult," I breathed. "But not impossible?"

"No, not impossible, why?"

"It's Anubus." I raised my voice because the adrenaline began to surge. "Patra's object isn't an object at all. Don't you get it? He's the ultimate Trojan horse, and Bones nearly got killed delivering him! She meant to finish Bones off in the ambush-and then the rest of us later, since we carted Anubus back home with us. Patra knew we wouldn't kill him, who offs their most valuable hostage?"

Vlad started to smile. He released me and spread out his hands, holding them over his head. All around us chaos reigned.

"He's too far away for me to reach him before I'd be cut down, but let's see if I can save the day."

"Go on," I replied, whirling to clear the area around him. "Impress me."

His hands began to glow, not red, but blue. They lit the hall with an eerie navy-violet light. Sparks flew off his hands, showering my hair as I continued to slash at the oncoming zombies.

Someone screamed, high-pitched and agonizing. I threw a heartless grin at Vlad as I recognized the voice.

"You've got his attention, Drac."

"He's strong," Vlad replied in a strained tone. His hands were now completely engulfed in flames. "And must I remind you once more what my name is?"

"You arrogant..." thrust though the stomach of a snapping zombie, twisting and using all my strength to cleave him in half "...overpublicized..." wasn't going to work, it clawed at the blade, and my God, these things were tough, "...showy old bat..." Crack! There went my head into the wall. If I didn't have a split skull, I'd be amazed. "What are you waiting for? Aren't you the king of all bogeymen? The legend children fear will devour them if they don't behave?"

Two more zombies slipped past Bones and Mencheres, who were now almost back-to-back trying to stave them off.

"Come on, Vlad, live up to your reputation! If you can't burn to deathone Egyptian vampire chained to a wall, how did you ever drive the Turks from Romania?"

There was a loud reverberating snap, like an electric transformer had blown, and then in midleap, the charging zombies fell to the floor. Out of the suddenly still forms, dirt began to appear, covering them, eroding over the creature's bodies, until nothing but piles of earth remained.Out of the ground they were called, I thought,and back they went.

"You did it," I panted, dropping my sword and running not in his direction, but the opposite one.

"Of course," I heard him reply as strong arms lifted me up and crushed me against a chest covered with gore. "I'm Vlad Tepesh, what did you expect?"

Chapter Thirty-One

FOR ABOUT THIRTY SECONDS I HELD BONES, feeling his mouth pressed to my hair, his hands gripping my back, and I was truly happy. Then there was the sound, a muffled moan, one I heard even above the other vampires' cries of exultation. One that seemed to come from my very cells, which made sense, in a weird way.

"Mom."

I dashed straight down the hall toward the back like I was being pulled by a string. Bones was close behind, but not as fast as I was, not this time. I fell to my knees when I saw her, draped across Denise's lap, my friend's hands compressing her stomach. Next to them lay a zombie, now only a pile of dirt, and my mother was as still and pale as death.

"No!"

It tore out of me even as I acted without thinking, taking one of my knives and slashing it across my wrist, tilting her head up, forcing my blood in her mouth. The blade cut right through to the bone and red liquid overflowed her lips.

She gagged once and weakly swallowed, bubbles trailing out of her mouth. I worked her jaw, forcing her to swallow again.

Denise was crying and praying at the same time. Bones pushed her to the side to crouch over my mother. He took the same knife I'd used and sliced his own wrist, holding it over her mouth, instructing me to begin chest compressions to force his blood through her body.

Blinded by tears I did, bearing down on her chest. Her heart had stopped beating right as Bones gave her his blood. Over and over I pressed on her chest while Bones blew into her mouth.

"That thing came in the room," Denise choked, several injuries on her as well. "And it just jumped on her! I tried to pull it off, but it was so strong...Come on, Justina, don't give up!"