Max was well aware of his wife’s distress. He had seen it clearly enough in her eyes upon returning to the house, and hearing McKenzie’s detailed account of the situation had only chilled him further. He had not pressed her, however, knowing that she would discuss the matter when she was ready and not a moment before.
“Sorry for the lack of details in the drawing,” McKenzie was saying, leaning over a large drawing table upon which lay a map of the underground section of the city. “I had to move quickly and this was the best I could find in our files.”
“It’ll do fine,” Max assured him. He glanced up as Nettie entered the room, carrying a tray filled with glasses of iced tea. The old woman looked around the room nervously, letting her gaze linger on both Evelyn and Reed, who was sitting in the corner, nervously chewing his nails and looking as skittish as a mouse. Max wondered just how far Reed could go without irredeemable madness setting in. “Thank you, Nettie. I’ll let you know if we need anything else.”
Nettie nodded, realizing that she was being dismissed. She pulled the door closed behind her, but her expression remained one of concern.
“Why don’t we go before the sun drops?” McKenzie pressed. It was nearly seven o’clock already and the sun was beginning to recede behind the clouds. The police chief looked none the worse for wear, despite the horrors of the early morning. His uniform was freshly pressed and his handsome features made him look like he’d stepped right off the silver screen. “I mean, the vampires will be asleep now, won’t they? We’d only have to deal with any human servants they might have.”
“Possibly,” Max agreed, “but I think we’ve all had trying times as of late. I’m more interested in giving us time to rest and regroup than I am in pressing forward when we’re not at our peak.” The Peregrine glanced over at Reed Barrows, adding a note of command to his words. “Reed, I want you to come with us tonight. You’re our link to finding Camilla.”
“What does it matter?” Reed answered, shaking his head. “If the black messenger comes… if all the other Noble Dead come… then Camilla doesn’t matter anymore. She’s just another cog in the machine.”
“A very important cog,” Evelyn pointed out. “Because she still has the Necronomicon. Even after we’ve dealt with this Kingdom of Blood, we still have to find that book and make sure it’s not used for foul purposes again.”
“There are other copies,” Reed countered. “You’ll never be able to stop that book’s evil.”
“Then people will have to use other copies!” Max bellowed. “I don’t give a damn whether or not you feel like helping us, Reed—you’re going to. Now accept that and start helping us!”
Reed pouted like a petulant child but finally relented, rising from his chair to stand near the table. “There will be many more vampires there tonight. You’ll need special weaponry.”
“We have the things that Klempt was carrying,” Evelyn said, moving to join the men. “Was he on the right track?” she asked Reed, bowing to the man’s intimate knowledge of the undead.
Reed thought for a moment before nodding. “Yes… but I’d make sure your necks are well protected, as well. Garlic won’t put them off very much, but it does assault their senses and makes them more cautious.” He looked at Max. “That dagger of yours will hurt them badly. It possesses powerful magic.”
“One of these days I’ll have to look into the origins of that thing,” Max whispered. He tapped an area of the map. “I say we enter here. McKenzie, I want you and Evelyn to distract the vampires while Reed and I go after Camilla. With any luck, we’ll find them all together.”
“Should I call in some backup?” McKenzie asked. “I can always draft in some officers, tell them we’re going after gangsters…”
“They won’t stand a chance,” Evelyn said with a shake of her head. Max noticed that McKenzie seemed quite taken by Evelyn’s beauty, but he couldn’t blame the man: she had that effect on nearly everyone. “If we take some of Max’s special equipment with us, we’ll be able to hold off these Noble Dead for a time.”
“Suicide,” Reed snorted. “We’re all going to die in agonizing pain.”
Max began to roll up the map, ignoring the man’s cowardice. “Follow me. I’ll take you a place where we can get ready.” With the papers held firmly in one hand, he led the group out of the house, walking right by a still nosy Nettie. He unlocked the entrance to the storm cellar and descended into the darkness, lighting a lamp when he’d reached the center of the room. Gesturing for Reed to close the cellar door behind him, Max said, “Welcome to the Peregrine’s Nest.”
McKenzie gaped at the sight, taking in a wide variety of beakers, weapons and scientific odds and ends. “It looks like a damned museum… of what kind, I don’t know… but a museum of something.”
“It’s my private Cabinet of Curiosities,” Max replied with a laugh. “Mementos, things I’m working on, spare costumes… I store it all down here.” He moved to a workbench and pulled out a small box from underneath. He set it on the table and began removing several small spherical objects. “Gas bombs. If you use this,” he held up a small device that he demonstrated by briefly slipping into his nostrils, “it will filter the smoke… but anyone who’s unprotected will find that their lungs are suddenly on fire. Even though vampires don’t need to breathe in the way we do, their internal structure seems much the same and Reed has confirmed for me that they are able to smell, taste and hear just as we do, only at an augmented level. I think this gas will make its way into their lungs just like it would a human… and I’m betting it’ll hurt—a lot.”
Evelyn couldn’t avoid smiling a bit as her husband talked about his inventions. From the first moment she’d met him, she’d known he was different than most men—greater in some ways. But when he talked like this, full of animated excitement, he seemed like a little boy… and it made her wonder what sort of father he’d make someday.
Max caught her eye for a moment and winked.
CHAPTER XIX
Into the Darkness
The Peregrine walked at the front of the group, pistols held at the ready. He was remarkably calm considering the fact that there were dozens—possibly hundreds—of vampires waiting for him just up ahead. Max was comfortable with the knowledge of death looming just over the horizon, however—he had lived with danger for so long that it rarely troubled him any longer. His marriage to Evelyn had tempered that a bit, however, and he glanced over at her now, wondering if he should have pressed harder for her to stay behind.
With a wry smile, he pushed that thought out of his mind entirely. Evelyn never would have agreed to play the helpless damsel, waiting at home for her husband to finish the dangerous work. She was a rare person—and he loved her for it.
The tunnels beneath the city were filthy and wet, a steady drip of water coming from above. Several times, he heard Reed slip and catch himself, uttering muffled curses each time. McKenzie brought up the rear of the party, gas bombs strapped across his chest in a crisscrossed fashion. Max noted that the police officer betrayed no fear at the coming battle. In fact, he looked somewhat hopeful of it.
He’s an odd one
, Max mused.
I’m glad Benson sent him my way, though. I trust him like I’ve known him for years.
Once again, he was reminded of how lonely he had been before moving to Atlanta—and how he’d tried to avoid bringing others into the dangerous life he lived.
I’ll never go back to that kind of solitary existence
, Max thought.
Not after I’ve seen the alternative.
“Max,” Evelyn whispered. She reached out and touched his arm, the small lantern she carried casting flickering, distorted shadows along the walls. “Do you smell that?”
The Peregrine paused, inhaling deeply. At first all he noticed was the scent of decay and rotting vegetation… but mixed in with those awful odors was something else: something peculiar and foul. “Reed. What do you think is causing that smell?”
The thin man moved to join him, looking distressed. “It’s the Noble Dead. Camilla told me that the ones who’ve been asleep for a long time sometimes begin to rot. It takes multiple feedings to revive them and get rid of the smells of the grave.” Reed sighed. “It also makes them weaker until they’ve finishing healing… which is the only hope we have of not being killed in the first few minutes of fighting.”
The Peregrine ignored the man’s dire attitude. He moved forward, leading the group down further into the darkness. After several moments, the walkway began to take on an incline slope and they emerged into a rounded chamber from which three exits could be seen—each of the tunnels were too dark to reveal anything about where they led. The smell of death and blood was overpowering.
“We’re not alone,” McKenzie warned, pointing his own lamp at one of the tunnels.
The Peregrine watched as Camilla emerged, flanked by four vampires who appeared in reasonably good health. Each of them showed some signs of recent emergence from the ground, but they were strong and deadly. Before anyone could speak, more vampires stepped out from the other tunnels… and worst of all, Reed’s terrified squawk alerted Max to the fact that there were vampires behind them, as well. Somehow they had watched them enter the tunnels, using sentries to warn Camilla and the others that enemies were approaching.
So much for all my detailed planning
, Max thought.
“Hello,” Camilla purred, her eyes flicking from one member of the group to the next. Her gaze fell last upon Reed and for the briefest of moments her demeanor seemed to soften. But the weakness was gone so swiftly that none could truly say that it had been there at all. “I must admit… our prey don’t usually come rushing into our laps like this.”
These comments made the vampires laugh raucously, baring their fangs. Some of them were covered in blood already, giving ample evidence to the fact they’d been feeding in preparation for battle. Thankfully, several of them were little more than skin and bones at this point, still needing days or weeks to recover fully from their long slumber.
The Peregrine pointed his pistol directly at Camilla’s head. “I find the undead particularly disgusting… but I’m willing to work with you. Give us the Necronomicon and we’ll let you leave here, as long as you promise to abandon this Kingdom scheme.”
“You must be joking,” Camilla responded, impressed by the man’s bravado but finding herself quite certain that he must be mad. “You’re outnumbered and overmatched… and the Kingdom is coming. We are its harbingers.”
“I was afraid you were going to say that,” the Peregrine replied. He knew that Camilla was too fast for him to hit cleanly, even at this close range, so he spun about and fired instead at one of the vampires to her left. The bullet, soaked in holy water, sliced through the center of his forehead, exiting out the other side. “No mercy!” he shouted at his companions and they joined the battle in earnest, striking without hesitation. Even Reed was in the thick of things, though Max suspected that the man’s sense of self-preservation had kicked in where bravery would not.
Evelyn found herself surrounded by several of the vile creatures, each of them reeked with the grave. She fought well, using every trick taught to her by her husband. A swift kick to the head sent one of the vampires tumbling away from her and she tossed one of the smoke bombs directly into the face of another, sending him gasping in pained terror. She lost track of her husband in the melee, but was far too busy to worry about his safety.
McKenzie, likewise, was engrossed in defending himself. He shoved a wooden stake through the heart of a female vampire, one whose beauty was so beguiling that the officer had almost lost his will to fight. He cried out when one of the males raked his cheek with sharp dirt-stained fingernails, drawing blood. McKenzie backed up against a wall, drawing his pistol and firing again and again, his perfect shots leaving one foe after another with gaping wounds in their heads and torsos.
Camilla watched in shock as the small band laid waste to the Noble Dead… even the power of the ancient beings seemed to pale beside the heroic energy of their attackers. Feeling a cold certainty that they were doomed, she turned to flee to the safety of Nyarlathotep… only to find that the Peregrine was ahead of her, hurrying down the center hallway from which she had come. Hissing in anger, the vampire queen set off after her foe, moving so quickly that her feet seemed to glide across the tunnel floor. “Bag of meat! Bag of blood!” she shouted, landing atop the Peregrine’s back, sending him to the floor. She allowed him to roll about beneath her, eager to bury her fangs in his neck.
When the man did turn to face her, he seemed oddly composed for one whose death was so imminent. “You’ve lived a long time,” the Peregrine said, staring up into her eyes. “Do you really want your existence to end down here? Is this tunnel where you want to have your remains scattered for all eternity?”
Camilla paused, holding her prey down with a strong grip on his shoulders. She leaned close to him, smelling his aroma and allowing her pink-tinged lips to part in a grin. “How is it that you can remain so… confident… when I’m seconds away from ripping your throat open?”
“Because you don’t know anything about me. You’re assuming that all I am is a nut who wears a bird mask and carries a gun.”
Camilla laughed softly. “And you’re more than that? Tell me, Mr. Peregrine… what
are
you really?”
“I’m someone who’s capable of
this
.” Max reached out with his mind, performing the same type of telepathic assault that he’d done before… during those frightening days in Germany, when Jacob Trench had come so close to unleashing ultimate evil upon the world. Camilla let out a surprised sigh as Max’s mind sliced into hers, tearing and ripping like a weapon. It was painful to Max, as well, and disturbing on even deeper levels… for it felt like a particularly nasty form of rape.
The vampire queen screamed, pulling her hands away from Max and using her nails to scratch at the sides of her head. When that failed to stop the pain inside her skull, she began beating at it, using such force that blood began to ooze from the inside of her nose and eyes.
Max shoved her away from him, dusting himself off. He pulled his mental attack back a bit, slowly easing his consciousness out of hers. She whimpered on the ground, curling up into a fetal position and Max felt a twinge of sympathy for her. He’d seen many awful things when he’d visited her mind, though, and the depths of her actions made him feel secure that he’d done the right thing.