The Cross

‘I’m afraid for him. He’s been very badly hurt. The cross—’

The Master raised his long, thin hand, silencing her. ‘Yes. Our servants have already informed us of what happened. Of course, you fear for Gabriel. But you must leave him now. He is to be taken from here.’

‘What’s he say?’ Zachary asked, keeping his eyes low.

Lillith ignored him. ‘Taken where?’ she asked, frowning.

‘To the heart of the citadel,’ the Master said, ‘to a place where none of your kind may normally enter.’

‘Are you going to help him? We brought him here in the hope that you could save him.’

‘We have the means to restore him. The cross’s power was not fully expended on him.’

‘Then you have to make him better.’

The Master was quiet for a moment. ‘It is not so simple. The Grand Council is convening.’

Lillith didn’t want to show her irritation, but it was hard to disguise. ‘Gabriel is slipping away and all you can do is hold a meeting?’

‘It is about Gabriel that we must talk,’ he said. ‘Only once the Council has made its decision can we act.’

‘I don’t understand. What decision?’

‘Gabriel is to be placed on trial. If found innocent, he will be spared. If guilty, then according to our custom, he will be executed. I am sorry.’

Lillith was unable to avoid staring straight into the Master’s dark, inscrutable eyes. ‘Guilty of what?’ she demanded. ‘How can this be? What trial?’

The Übervampyr made no reply. At a wave of his clawed hand, six vampire servants marched into the chamber. Four of them lifted up the ice slab on which Gabriel lay. The other two drew long, curved swords from their belts and pointed them at Lillith and Zachary.

‘Something tells me this ain’t going too well,’ Zachary rumbled.

The Master motioned to the four slab-bearers. ‘To the Hall of Judgement,’ he ordered.

Chapter Twelve (#ulink_e9beb89e-7b16-558b-83eb-2ed052b03e78)

Romania

The sleet had given way to a mist of icy drizzle that blanketed the hills and forests as Joel drove the stolen pickup truck through the night. With every mile that passed, he kept glancing at the sinking fuel gauge. The only thing that terrified him more than being stranded in the middle of nowhere, lost, penniless and alone, was the horror of being caught in the open by the rising sun. He kept thinking he could see the first red glow of dawn on the dark eastern horizon.

‘Relax,’ he muttered out loud over the beat of the windscreen wipers. ‘You’ve got hours yet. Everything’s fine.’

Yeah, he thought bitterly. You’re a vampire now, and everything’s just fucking fine.

After the endless empty roads, a sweeping stretch of lights in the distance told him he was approaching a town. He was suddenly gripped with terror at the thought of entering such a dangerous alien environment. Humans would be everywhere. But he fought the urge to shy away from the town, and gripped the steering wheel tightly as he joined the thickening flow of night-time traffic. He was growing dizzy with hunger. He needed to eat. No, not to eat. To feed. The thought made him feel sick.

Driving by the illuminated windows of an all-night supermarket on the edge of town, Joel swerved into the little car park next to it and pulled up in the shadows. There was only a smattering of other vehicles in the car park, and he figured that some of those must belong to the staff.