My Immortal The Vampires of Berlin (18 page)

The vampires stopped in their tracks as the floor shook. When the earthquake stopped, Sebastian unscrewed his canteen.

“Thirsty?” Zina asked.

“Not so much. But before you kill me, maybe you could use a nice cool drink.”

Zina and Dumitra exchanged confused glances.

Then Sebastian threw the canteen at them as hard at as he could. Zina caught it in midair, but water flew out of the canteen and went all over her. She screamed as the side of her face melted.

Suddenly, the floor gave way!

37

There was silence after the tunnel collapsed. Men and weapons were scattered all over the place. There was a hole in the ceiling and a huge pile of rocks and debris nearly sealed the west end of the tunnel. At the top of that pile, Zina was buried up to her neck. She was in bad shape; her half-melted face was still smoldering. Dumitra was nowhere to be seen.

Klaus panicked when he didn’t see Dieter. A second later, he saw boots sticking out of the dirt. “There he is!”

Zina taunted the men as they frantically dug through the rocks and dirt to save Dieter. “Nazi devils—you must kill the girl!” she yelled. “The Fourth Reich will be the End of Days! Even for Germany!”

The men ignored the vampire’s insane tirade, but Wolf seriously considered putting a hand grenade into her mouth. Then Sebastian jumped down through the hole in the ceiling. Klaus and Wolf noticed him, but they were too busy trying to save Dieter for a reunion.

“Listen to me! Kill the girl!” Zina screamed.

“You know what, bitch? You are really starting to bother me,” Sebastian said. He climbed down the rock pile, took Wolf’s canteen, and climbed back up.

“You must kill the girl!” Zina screamed.

Sebastian moved in close and examined her half-melted face. “On another topic, I think the right side of your face should match the left. It’s called symmetry. “

“You don’t understand!” she cried.

Sebastian held up his canteen. “This is full of holy water.
Do you understand
?”

Terror showed itself on the vampire’s face. The creature had little to fear in the world, but holy water burned vampires just as strong acid would burn a human. “Stop! Please! Listen to me!” she screamed.

“This conversation is over,” he said as he poured the water over the vampire. Zina’s face smoked and melted into a bloody, formless mess that folded in on itself. For the
coup de grace
, he jerked her head to the side and cut her throat with his bayonet. What remained of her head rolled down the rock pile and disappeared in a burst of flame.

A few meters away, Klaus yelled jubilantly as they pulled his grandson out of the dirt by his feet. “We got him!”

The kid coughed as they scooped the dirt out of his mouth. Dieter’s first concern amused his mates. “Pop, I lost my helmet...”

“Don’t worry about it—it didn’t fit your pea-sized head anyway,” Klaus teased.

Then, without warning, a voice came from behind them. “
They are coming for me.”

The men exchanged nervous glances as Eva beckoned them to follow, but only Sebastian moved. “Let’s go,” he said. “She’ll show us the way out.

“There’s something wrong with her,” Klaus replied.

“I agree. She’s been traumatized.”

“There’s more to it, my friend. You’re asking us to follow someone who is being actively hunted by vampires. Ask yourself—what did she do to piss them off? Whatever that was, I bet it isn’t good for us.”

“She is the only reason that your sorry ass is still alive. Let’s roll,” Sebastian said. The argument continued for another five minutes. Eventually, Sebastian convinced the men that Eva was their best—if not their only—chance to get out of the tunnel system alive.

As the men followed Eva, it didn’t take long for Klaus to second-guess his decision. “How can you be sure she’s not taking us to the Russians? Or to be eaten by the vampires?”

“That’s not likely,” Sebastian replied. “They all want her dead.”

38

The heavy iron door creaked as it opened. The occupants of the mausoleum went perfectly still and listened for any sign of the enemy.

Slowly, quietly, the men crept out of the stone building and peered through the fog. In front of them, beautiful gravestones and gothic statues were illuminated by moonlight and the glow of distant fires. None of them had known that such a fantastic place existed in the heart of Berlin. Klaus stared at the white stone angel that towered above the cemetery. “Incredible,” he said, running his hand along the bottom of a smooth wing.

“Don’t be so astonished, old man. We’re not out of this shit yet,” Wolf said. As if on cue, flashes of light appeared on the horizon, followed by the thunder of distant big guns.

“Do you think we’re going to make it, boss?” Dieter asked as they moved down a stone path.

“We’ll make it,” Wolf replied. He was trying to build his squad’s confidence in the face of overwhelming odds, but point of fact, he wasn’t sure they would make it. “Let’s rest for a few minutes and re-distribute the ammo.”

Klaus pointed to a cluster of dead German soldiers. “Dieter, see what they got on them.”

As the kid searched the bodies, Sebastian put his head in his hands. “Christ!” he laughed. “After a treacherous journey and all sorts of crazy supernatural shit, the oasis we find in the middle of the destroyed city is a graveyard. Michelangelo couldn’t have painted a better picture.”

“At least they won’t have to take our bodies far,” Klaus chided.

“We aren’t dead yet,” Sebastian replied.

“Young man, I’ll be surprised if we live to see the morning sun,” Klaus said.

“Yeah,” Sebastian added. “Me too.”

Dieter was excited to find a
Panzerfaust
under one of the bodies. It was a single-use weapon, so he was always on the lookout for another one. He wasn’t so excited by his new helmet, however. He put it on and grimaced.

“Don’t worry about it, kid. He doesn’t need it anymore,” Wolf said.

“And you finally got a helmet that fits,” Klaus added, eliciting a chuckle from everyone, including Dieter.

Suddenly, Eva got up and walked off by herself into the fog. Sebastian jumped up and followed her.

“Let her go,” Klaus implored. “We don’t need her.”

“Kill the bitch!” Axel gasped.

Sebastian looked back at the pilot, but he didn’t say anything.
He gets a pass,
he thought.
He doesn’t have long to live.
The uncomfortable silence that he left behind in his wake was broken by a short burst of gunfire just outside the graveyard.

The Russians were coming.

39

Eva sat on the riverbank and watched the nighttime sky as the sounds of battle resounded in the distance. She didn't say anything when Sebastian sat down next to her. Nor did he expect her to.

“
Guten Abend
,” he said.

Eva didn't respond.

Sebastian never believed in vampires until he met one. Until one bit him. Now, the sight of blood excited him and his strength was increasing by the hour. He knew what the other men had only suspected. Eva was a vampire. He was turning into one himself. He also instinctively knew that their survival depended on Eva, for reasons known only to God—assuming that God was still in Berlin.

“Are you okay?” he asked. “Do you understand me? Do you know where you are?”

Eva just stared at the sky. If she heard him, she didn't show it. Opening the lines of communication with the young vampire was going to be much harder than he had thought. Frustrated, he turned her towards him and raised his voice. “Look at me. That
Luftwaffe
pilot over there...”

“
Axel
,” Eva said softly.

“Yes. Axel is about to die from burns he got when a vampire torched his face. He got hurt saving
you
. Now, please. Tell me what this is all about.”

She blinked hard and then pointed to the sky.
“It’s in the stars, Sebastian...”

He looked up. Smoke and fog covered the city. There were no stars, only a dark gray gloom lit by the flash of occasional explosions in the distance.

Before he could ask her another question, an artillery shell exploded in the river in front of them. The cold water that cascaded over them brought him crashing back to reality. He got up and took her hand.