The Division of the Damned (47 page)

*  *  *

The Dracyl stormed into the room with Lilith after him. This time the vampire entourage that followed the Dracyl didn’t wait outside; they poured into the room seeking Lilith, filing up along the walls as if to keep a respectful distance. Iullia stood up but he pushed her aside and made straight for the cot.

She looked on in stunned silence as he reached into the crib and
pulled the now screaming child out. A spark of alarm flared in
side and she moved towards the c
ount as he held the child aloft.

"You’re hurting him," she pleaded.

"Stay out of this, woman, and I’ll let you live to see him grow into a man, into the Dracyl.”

Something in her snapped. The constant threat of death, the loneliness, the fact tha
t she felt she was helping the D
evil himself all came together and she rushed at the vampire.

Arms outstretched like talons, her teeth bared in a primeval rage, she screamed her attack as she dashed across the room.

Quicker than the vampires, Lilith held out a hand and shot an invisible force to block her. Iullia ran into the force field and bounced back onto the floor.

Without even looking at Iullia, the Dracyl acknowledged Lilith’s action. "Your powers are retur
ning, Demon,” he observed dryly.
"
B
ut soon we will both be more powerful than even the Gods who shunned us.”

Lilith smiled and nodded. "The Book has rejuvenated me. For the first time in a thousand years I feel strong again.”

He pulled the child back into him and turned to his vampires. "They’ll only have so much silver in their arsenal. Throw the newest at them to waste their bullets and we’ll take them when they’re spent and desperate. Fear always makes the blood sweeter.”

His generals ran out to give orders, the
c
ount following with Lilith in tow.

Dazed and concussed, Iullia could only watch from the floor as they left the room with the screaming child. She remained on the floor until the last vampire had scuttled out.

She could feel herself starting to weaken and the tears that pricked behind her eyes threatened to leak out. Then she noticed the door. It was open.

She stood up and padded over to it. She looked around the corner but there was no one there. Steeling herself, she stepped out into the corridor.

*  *  *

Borkin heard the volley but he doubted it was Russian soldiers doing the shooting. "Kurakin assured me there’d be no Red Army around here, so unless he’s been removed from command, I can only guess that it’s German or Romanian soldiers shooting up the night.”

The thought of German soldiers made Stephanie think of Rohleder, and her hands involuntarily moved to her stomach. "Shall we wait here? Perhaps they’ll go away.”

Borkin looked worried. "I’d prefer to but we’re limited by time.”

"What do you mean? Why are you in such a hurry?”

"Kurakin can only keep this place free of soldiers for so long. The last thing we need is some Party busybody to decide this area must
be cleared before we find the atrocity c
amp. Then we’ll both be in trouble.”

Stephanie thought long and hard before she answered Borkin. Sooner or later the truth would have to come out and it was best to tell him now, rather than to let him rush in headlong on a wild goose chase.

"Olaf, about this camp, what exactly are you expecting to find there?”

He looked at her quizzically. "What do you mean?”

"Well, the camp, the a
trocity
c
amp, what do you expect to find there?
Germans, guard towers?”

He snorted doubtfully. "Well, the one they f
ound a couple of months ago had
—
”

"Olaf, there is no
camp,
” she broke in.

He reacted as if she had slapped him in the face. His mouth shut tight and he blinked rapidly a few times as if to gather his senses. "The
d
octor said that you’d all
come from a camp, a German camp.
Hell on earth
,
I think he called it.”

Stephanie nodded vehemently. "Yes, yes, we did, but the camp no longer exists as it did
when we were there. Only the c
astle, the stables and the barracks remain. The camp itself, I don’t know, but there are no inmates there to liberate. They’ve all gone or are long since dead.”

"So why are we going back there?" Borkin shouted, fla
pping his arms in exasperation.
"Why didn’t
you say something earlier? The g
eneral is going to ask about a camp and all I can give him is an old castle and some stables? He gave me a camera, for pity’s sake. Do you have any idea how rare these things are? He wants proof, pictures, evidence." He shook his head in disbelief
.
"We’ll all be shot,” he said to himself, and then
spoke
loudly to the trees
.
"We’ll all be shot, the werewolf too!”

"You were all so focused on the idea of liberating a camp, Reuben was sick and I didn’t know how to break it to you."

Borkin covered his face with his hands. "This cannot be true.
And now?
What do you want to do now?”

"I need to go on. I have to find Michael.”

Borkin laughed imperceptibly and wearily nodded his head. "Now I understand. Borkin the fool is led a merry dance to help the girl he loves find her boyfriend. What exactly have I done to you that
makes
you hate me so much?”

Stephanie opened her mouth to answer but Borkin held up his hand to stop her
.
"No, don’t say a word. You don’t even know what you’ve done. Just so you know what will happen when I return,
alone, with no
camp liberated
—
I’ll be shot. My family, that is my parents and sister, will be sent to a work camp without even being told
why,
and all because you want to find your Fascist.”

"Olaf, it’s not like that. Listen to me
.
W
e can go there, we’ll take some pictures with your camera and you can say that there was a camp but it’s been destroyed to hide the evidence.”

He looked down in contemplation. She had known all along that there wasn’t a camp. She, they, had lied to save
themselves
from being tortured and killed, and then lied to get the medical attention that the doctor needed. Who could blame them
,
really?

The last couple of years must have been hell for the Jews, so it was only really to be expected that they would use everything at their disposal to stay alive. He looked into himself and was shocked
to find that he wasn’t angry
—
disappointed
,
but not angry. He knew he could never really be angry with her.

Stephanie said nothing. She knew he was coming to a decision and she felt that if she said just one word, the decision would go against her.

"Show me where this camp is and I’ll try and take some pictures. The
g
eneral is a good sort. I just hope his good nature can swallow this.”

She closed her eyes in silent thanksgiving and they wordlessly rode in the direction of the firing.

Chapter 60

They destroyed the initial wave of vampires so comprehensively it looked like a canister round at a pheasant shoot. The first hail of silver disintegrated the leading three ranks almost immediately. Their burning bodies fell to the ground and were ash before impact. The remaining pack peeled off and circled overhead.

The squad reformed to take up all-round defence positions. While the vampires circled harmlessly above, they reloaded their magazines and checked their mechanisms.

"Don’t forget, we stay under the branches
.
D
on’t leave the circle regardless of what happens," Michael reminded them all.

"The war in the east would have been over a lot quicker if the Russians had used these tactics
.
" Rohleder laughed, albeit somewhat unconvincingly

Henning picked up on the banter. "Yeah, but Ivan didn’t suck all your blood if he took you prisoner.”

"No, Ivan just cut your balls off and sent you to a collective farm to be a practice fuck for the prize bullock!”

"Oh my God!
”
Inselman exclaimed.

"Right, lads, concentrate. Here they come again," Von Struck butted in.

The circle of vampires dropped ever lower as if to land on or around the cottages that surrounded the tree. Von Struck waited until they were settled before he gave the order and in an instant they were decimated in a storm of automatic fire.

They flew back to the Castle in a flurry of snow and ash.

"They’ll be back," Michael announced. "They’ve only got tonight to get this right, so make sure your mags are loaded and give your guns a going over. We’ve got a busy night ahead of us.”

Two hours later they came at them again. This time they attacked in a column on foot, carrying tables from the castle as make-do shields before them. The tables, though heavy and awkward, were thick enough to protect them from the soft silver bullets and they made good progress. They advanced in a concentrated silence that seemed more unnerving than an all-out screaming attack.

"Move to meet them but stay under the tree and get your swords ready. This could get close," Von Struck ordered.

They formed two lines to meet the vampires head on. Inselman stood at the back to guard against any flanking or encircling manoeuvres but the rest faced the front.

Nobody fired until the ponderous advance reached the open area between the cottages and the tree.

"Fire!
Take their legs out from under them," Von Struck shouted and
they shot at the exposed limbs. The mere touch of silver seemed enough to ignite the vampires and the front line behind the tables disappeared in a flash of fire. However, the luxury of numbers kept the tables held high, and though the advance faltered at the first volley, it continued as they dropped the shield lower to hide their legs.

Inselman cried the alarm as, from the sky to their right, another wave of airborne vampires swooped down to attack. Von Struck calmly directed the back line to meet them and the assault failed, like the first, in a climax of burning corpses and falling ash.

In the meantime, the advancing ground assault had made it to the fires.

"Swords!"
Michael shouted as his blade clicked and thudded out to its full extension. Von Struck frowned at him to show his annoyance. Michael caught his eye and understood immediately. Regardless of any rank they once held in another army, there can only be one commander in the field and that was Von Struck.

He nodded his understanding and acceptance of the situation.

Von Struck took control.
"Inselman, stay alert to any flanking manoeuvres.
The rest of you get ready to use your swords. Drop your rifles when I give the word. Let’s take a step backwards and get them under the tree’s branches to see if it does affect them like the old man said.”

They shuffled back towards the trunk of the tree, keeping a constant rate of fire directed at the advancing enemy.

Up to now, the ene
my had been kept at bay in textbook fashion, by
conserving their ammo and manoeuvring with machine-like precision. However, the rifles were running hot and there seemed to be no end to their assailants.

The vampires reached the fires that marked the tree’s outer limits. The line faltered, as if crossing an invisible threshold, and moved on between the flames.

"Stop firing. We’ll let the weapons cool down. Form two lines and we’ll try it with the swords for a while. If it doesn’t go as planned, the second rank can pick up their rifles and we’ll use them again.”

Wordlessly they moved back into two ranks, five in the first row and four at the back. Henning, Grand, Nau, Von Struck and Michael stood to the fore, their rifles shouldered and their swords out, with Inselman, Rohleder, Smith and Gruhn taking the rear.

"Markus, let me go in the front line,” suggested Smith. “If the
v
ampires see me fighting them, it may cause a bit of a stir in their ranks.”

Von Struck looked back at him but before he could say anything Smith carried on. "And it means that you lot can keep an eye on me in case I go over to the other side.”

It was said without humour and all that heard it took it as such. Von Struck nodded. "Ok, shoulder your rifle.”

Smith took Grand’s place and they waited for the vampires to close.