Hidden (Marchwood Vampire Series #1) (27 page)

‘
What is it?’ Freddie asked. ‘Is Monsieur Chevalier
alright?’

‘
Go! And do not look back.’

The boys
backed out of the room, shocked by the guard’s aggression.

Isik crouched
back down and saw Didier leaning over the statue, its mouth clamped
onto his neck. A thin line of blood ran into the coffin, soaking
into the statue’s blue mantle.

Isik put his
pistol to the statue’s head and pulled the trigger. His hand jarred
painfully. The bullet seemed to go into the head, but there was no
change in its state. It remained attached to Didier’s neck. Isik
tried to pull him away from the thing, but he feared he would
injure his friend further and was unable to free him.

‘
Didier, can you hear me?’

The
Frenchman’s eyes stayed closed and he appeared to be in some kind
of swoon. He was not struggling, but his face was pale and he
started to twist round, slowly collapsing onto the floor. He would
be dead soon if Isik did not do something quickly. Just at that
moment, the others flew into the room in a whirlwind of noise and
panic.

‘
What is happening?’ Alexandre shouted. ‘What is Father doing?
Papa, what are you doing?’

‘
Didier!’ Marie-Louise cried out, running towards
him.

‘
Stay back!’ Isik shouted. ‘What are you doing in here? Get
out, all of you! Run for your lives and do not come back!’ He
pushed Marie-Louise away and she responded angrily.

‘
How dare you, Sir! What do you think you are
doing?’

‘
Forgive me, Madame, but I fear for your safety. These statues
are not natural. One of them is attacking your husband.’

‘
Do not be ridiculous! Let me see.’ Marie-Louise pushed past
Isik and bent down towards her husband. She screamed and jumped
back in fright. ‘What is it doing? Get it off him! Please, Isik, do
something!’

He spoke
rapidly in Turkish to Savas and Nail who stood nervously in the
doorway. Everyone else crowded closer, trying to see if Didier was
alright.

‘
Stand back, everybody!’ Isik shouted. His voice thunderous in
the stone room.

‘
What has happened to Papa?’ Isobel shrieked. ‘What is
happening?’

‘
Quiet!’ Isik roared once more. His guards joined him by the
coffin and the others moved back a little. The guards held out
their pistols. Isik aimed at the creature’s heart. The other two
aimed at each side of its head. They fired … It was as if nothing
had happened. The creature did not relinquish its hold on Didier.
Its eyes remained closed and it did not move one inch.

‘
Is she alive? What is she? It?’ Leonora asked.

‘
I believe the old woman, Havva Sahin, was right. It is a
demon,’ Alexandre replied. ‘A demon is attacking my father and we
cannot stop it. Well, I shall stop it!’

He strode over
to the coffin. His father now appeared limp and lifeless. ‘Give me
your knife, Isik.’ Isik handed it across and Alexandre plunged it
downwards into the creature’s heart. His hand twisted and burned as
the knife point broke and the blade sliced through his palm.

The woman
creature sat upright and released her grip on Didier who fell
heavily to the ground. Her hand shot out and grabbed Alexandre’s
wrist which was covered in dripping blood. With her eyes still
closed and her mouth smeared with Didier’s blood, she pulled
Alexandre’s wrist towards her mouth and broke his skin with her
teeth. At the same moment, the three statues in the opened coffins
sat upright. Everybody froze.

The statues
sat rigidly in their coffins with no expressions on their
chalk-white faces and their eyes still closed.

Isobel and
Marie-Louise screamed and began to back out of the room.
Marie-Louise tried to drag Jacques with her, but he resisted.

‘
Run, Maman!’ he said. ‘I will save Papa and Alexandre, do not
fear.’

‘
No, Jacques,’ Marie-Louise had hold of his arm. ‘Come with
us
now
!’

‘
Sorry, Maman, but no. Run! Take Isobel to safety.’

Marie-Louise
looked at her son, her eyes wild with terror, but she went with her
daughter who dragged her out of the room and away to safety.

Jacques and
Isik tried to pull the demon off Alexandre. He was not yet
unconscious and struggled to no avail. Then, for no apparent
reason, the demon released her grip on him and sank back down into
the coffin.

‘
Are you alright?’ Isik asked Alexandre.

‘
I think so,’ he replied. ‘I just feel a little woozy. My
father?’ He glanced at his torn wrist, now bleeding quite profusely
along with his sliced palm, but he did not even register the
pain.

Isik shook his
head, ‘I am sorry. He is gone.’

Alexandre
could not take in the enormity of Isik’s words and he crouched over
his father’s lifeless body.

‘
Come on, Papa,’ he barked. ‘Get up, we have to go.’ He felt
someone take hold of his good hand - Leonora. She looked down at
him with a mixture of sadness and fear.

‘
I am so sorry, Alexandre. But we must leave. It is not safe
here. There are many of these creatures. They will kill us if we
linger.’ She had ripped a strip of material from her petticoat and
was binding his wounds.

He staggered
to his feet, unable to believe his father was actually dead.
Everything had happened so quickly. He noticed the three other
demons sitting up and realised Leonora was right. They had to get
out of there immediately.

Isik and
Alexandre lifted Didier’s lifeless body between them and made for
the door.

‘
We have to kill them!’ Jacques said.

‘
There is no time,’ Alexandre replied. ‘They are too strong.
We must get everybody above ground, to safety. Stop talking
everyone. Move!’

They edged
towards the door, trying to avoid the high open coffins with the
eerie upright figures who sat stock still.

One of them
suddenly leaned across and grabbed Leonora by her hair, pulling her
over to him as if she were a rag doll. She screamed in shock and
pain. Two of its long fingernails had pierced the skin on her
forehead. Thin red lines of blood trickled down over her face.

‘
NO!’ Victoria, Freddie and Alexandre shouted out at the same
time. Freddie dived back towards her. Victoria shrieked.

‘
My baby! Save my baby girl! Do something!’

Alexandre and
Isik lay Didier’s body back down on the ground. They leapt towards
Leonora with the other two guards. By now, all six men were trying
to wrestle her free from the creature, but it had already begun to
drink from her neck, its nails still embedded in her forehead. She
swiftly faded into unconsciousness, her body bent at an unnatural
angle over the stone coffin.

‘
She is gone, my friend.’ Isik tried to pull Alexandre away
from her body, but he angrily shook off the guard’s
hand.

‘
She is not yet dead! I know it! I know it …’ He slumped onto
the floor and began to sob.

Freddie
battered the demon with a rock, but he may as well have been
kissing the creature goodnight, for all the effect it had. It flung
Leonora’s limp body onto the ground as if she were an empty glass
of lemonade and then lifted Freddie into the coffin with him.

‘
This is suicide,’ Isik said. ‘I would stay and fight until my
last breath if it would do any good. But they are too strong. We
must leave.
Now
!’

Another of the
creatures had taken Victoria and, after a brief scream, she too was
silenced by its sharp teeth.

There was a
loud BANG! The lid to one of the closed coffins flew across the
room and smashed into the rock wall opposite. Its inhabitant rose
slowly up out of its box and opened its kohl-rimmed eyes, turning
its head this way and that. It was a young male wearing a gold
headdress, red embroidered robes and a shimmering golden cloak.

Those not
already dead or incapacitated stood rooted to the spot, staring at
this magnificent creature who could bring about their deaths as
easily as crushing a beetle.

The demon
opened its mouth and uttered a low hissing sound, making the hairs
on the back of Alexandre’s neck and arms lift up. He knew he should
run, but his body felt heavy, paralysed, as if turned to stone. So
now he was going to die. He knew it just as surely as he knew his
own name.

The creature
leapt out of its coffin in one single fluid movement. It snapped
Alexandre’s head back and sank its teeth into his throat.

Alexandre’s
fear dissolved into faded bliss and then … nothing.

*

Only Isobel
and her mother had managed to escape from the room and now they
stumbled down the narrow corridor in fear for their lives.

‘
Maman!’ Isobel gasped. ‘What are we to do? The others are not
following! They will die!’

‘
Hush child,’ her mother shivered. ‘Isik and Alexandre will
save them. But right now, we have to get out of these accursed
caves.’

‘
Is Papa really …’

‘
Do not talk of it. It is a bad dream and soon we shall awake
and laugh and joke ...’ She stopped and her voice broke into sobs.
‘My Didier! My husband. It is monstrous. I do not believe what my
own eyes have seen.’

‘
Maman, we must continue upwards.’

Marie-Louise
choked back her sobs. ‘You are right, Ma Petite. We will escape and
send back a search party.’

‘
What was that?’ Isobel whispered. She stopped and strained
her ears.

‘
I heard nothing,’ her mother replied.

‘
There! That noise?’ She had heard a faint shout, she was sure
of it. She listened again but heard nothing.

‘
The others?’ Maman said. ‘It must be the others, they must
have escaped.’

‘
But it could be those creatures coming after us,’ Isobel
whispered. ‘What should we do, Maman?’

‘
I do not know, child. Wait, while I think for a moment.’ She
looked around. ‘Here, come in here and we shall wait as quiet as
mice until we know for sure. Then, when the coast is clear, we
shall leave.’

She pulled
Isobel into a small empty cell-like room. There was a millstone on
the inside and they both pushed and heaved with all the force they
had, until it rolled into place.

‘
We will wait here. Now, what do we have?’ Her mother’s voice
quavered. ‘We have two lanterns, some water, some dates and bread
and we each have our pistols.’

Isobel
crouched in the sealed cavern with her mother, shivering in its
grim safety. The minutes passed.

A familiar
voice rang out.

‘
Did you hear that?’ her mother exclaimed.

‘
It is Harold! We are saved.’

His voice
drifted down from somewhere above them. He was calling out his wife
and children’s names. Maman shone her lantern up to the
ceiling.

‘
Here! Look!’ She pointed up to a hole in the ceiling. ‘He
must be on the level above us. We must go to him. Quickly, help
me.’

They heaved
the stone away from the entrance and turned towards the
staircase.

‘
Harold!’ Isobel shouted. ‘We are down here!’

‘
Shhh!’ Marie-Louise put her hand over her daughter’s mouth.
‘We do not wish to alert those things to our
whereabouts.’

Isobel’s
breath caught in her throat. Behind her mother stood one of the
creatures, its expressionless face staring ahead at nothing. Isobel
extended a shaking arm and fired her pistol. Even from this point
blank range, the shot had no effect. She heard a loud, high-pitched
scream that seemed to last forever and realised the sound was
coming from her own mouth.

Her mother did
not have time to even turn around. The creature grabbed Maman’s arm
and there was a hollow pop as it dislocated from its socket. She
was dragged back down the corridor, her face twisted in shock. The
lantern she carried clattered to the floor, its dim light
spluttering in the gloom.

Isobel’s
scream petered out and now she called out in terror, ‘God help us!
Somebody help us!’ The robed creature appeared to fly back along
the corridor. It had Maman in its grip and the last thing Isobel
saw was the receding shape of her mother’s mouth, like a deep round
cavern as her high-pitched scream disappeared into the
darkness.

Isobel stood
alone in the doorway, shivering and sobbing. She stumbled forwards
in the direction the creature had taken her mother. The pain in her
heart was like a sharp white throbbing light that blotted out all
other feeling.

‘
Maman,’ she cried. ‘MAMAN!’ she screamed. ‘Come back! You
have forgotten me! It is me. It is Isobel. Do not leave without
me!’

She crumpled
onto the dusty stone floor and barely even noticed when one of them
lifted her into its deathly embrace and carried her back down the
corridor as if she were as light as air.

*

Harold held
onto the side of the entrance for support, for the view in front of
him was so shocking that all the strength in his body left him. One
solitary lantern still glowed in the room and he could just make
out the rows of high stone sarcophagi. It was like peering into
hell. His family and friends all strewn on the floor, misshapen
bodies, eyes staring.

The smell of
fear and death filled his nostrils as he picked up the limp form of
his wife, a wide smear of blood congealed on her neck. He kissed
her mouth and rocked her back and forth.