Whitby Vampyrrhic (31 page)

That's when Eleanor recognized her attacker as Mary Tinskell. Or what had been Mary Tinskell until just days ago. The vampire leapt on her in an absolute fury of violence to wrestle her down on to the mattress. Black veins wormed beneath a blue-white skin. The creature's mouth yawned wide to reveal white teeth in thick red gums.

‘Go ahead,' Eleanor stormed. ‘Bite me. Here, I'll make it easy for you!' She tore open her blouse at the neck to reveal her throat.

But that whirlwind of a creature held Eleanor down on to the bed. Clearly she had other plans for the woman. Then maybe Mary knew that Eleanor didn't have the kind of blood that vampires lusted after. Perhaps Eleanor would provide something else that Mary required so desperately.

Eleanor tried to struggle free of the cold body that sat astride her, icy thighs nipping tight against her hips. Swiftly, the vampire grabbed the bedspread at each corner, then drew them together. Soon Eleanor found herself in a cocoon of thick Yorkshire wool. Panting, striving to draw oxygen from the stuffy atmosphere inside this impromptu sack, Eleanor tried to call out, but this choking confinement pushed her chin down into her chest; she could barely grunt never mind shout for help. She knew that the vampires had plans for her. Whatever those were, they'd be far from pleasant.

Unable to see, unable to move, barely able to breathe, Eleanor sensed motion. The creature carried her as easily as in life it would carry fresh meat home for dinner in a shopping bag. Briefly, Eleanor felt a hard flatness beneath her and to one side.

My God,
she thought in horror,
I'm being pushed through the window. It's a thirty foot drop to the street.

Then came the dizzy whirl of rapid motion. The direction was downward. And lethally fast.

Six

The instant Gustav retreated through the subterranean passageway to the harbour Beth hurried upstairs. Tommy sat on the floor with the toy truck. Sam watched on, with bright, interested eyes. Beth found Sally and Alec in the kitchen. Quickly, she told them what had happened in the basement. When Sally heard about the return of Gustav she rocked back on her heels as if she'd faint.

Beth said, ‘I've never seen Eleanor so upset.'

Alec's single eye gave her a shrewd look. ‘Because you have a greater power than Eleanor Charnwood over her old boyfriend?'

‘I don't know if Gustav ever was her boyfriend.'

‘But you made her jealous. You succeeded in making him at least half human again, whereas she consistently failed to even face him.'

‘Alec. Please.' A nervous tremor ran through Sally's voice. ‘This isn't the time to accuse Beth of getting the better of Eleanor.'

Already, Beth hurried to the stairs. ‘Eleanor must have gone to her rooms.'

Alec called out, ‘Leave her be for a while. You've clearly given the woman something to think about.'

Racing up the steps, Beth heard the pair following.
Dear God, tonight isn't the night for tantrums and sulking alone. If what Gustav predicts comes true
 . . .
if the vampires attack?
By the time she reached the upper floor, where Eleanor's apartment was located, she realized something was amiss. A cool breeze blew along the hallway. The door to Eleanor's quarters swung in the breeze.

‘Hurry!' she shouted back at the pair.
But I know we're too late
was her unspoken thought. Without considering that vampires might be lurking in the room, Beth charged through the door. ‘Damn it, no.' Her eyes raked the turmoil. Chairs were upended; the bedside lamp lay smashed on the floor. Bedding had been ripped from the mattress. She raced to where curtains flapped in the breeze. Sweeping them aside, she leaned out through the open window. Church Street lay thirty feet below her. In the gloom, the long, thin stripe of its cobbled surface resembled the back of a serpent, the stone blocks the cold scales.

In this dreary blackout there wasn't much to see. Just the line of the road, flanked by tall, narrow cottages that looked so much like upright gravestones in a cemetery. But then . . . Yes . . . She leaned out further. Her eyes adjusted to the night, allowing her a glimpse of a terrible sight. A figure in a nightdress scaled the steps to St Mary's graveyard on the cliff top. The Vampiric figure carried a bundle on its back. Though her eyes watered in the cold air, Beth knew that in the bundle lay a figure. The blanket deformed as someone struggled within it.

‘What's happened to Eleanor?' Alec panted.

Beth turned to stare at the bed. She saw that the bedspread was missing.

‘Those things have taken her.'

Alec rushed to the window. ‘I can see someone, they're carrying a sack, or something like . . . but how can you tell they've got Eleanor?'

‘Oh, believe me, they have. They've bundled her into a blanket like she's a ragbag of stolen clothes.'

Sally sagged against the wall. ‘The poor woman . . . the poor woman. Oh God, I don't even want to imagine what they'll do to her.'

Alec ran his hands through his hair. ‘But she can't be infected. Yes, she's got that bite wound that doesn't heal. However—'

‘However nothing,' Beth snapped. ‘If they want to hurt her, they will. And if they chose to kill her . . .'

Sally groaned. ‘They've got the upper hand, haven't they? We can't stop them, any more than we can stop this awful war.' Hysteria crackled on the air. ‘They've beaten us. The vampires are going to come and take us whenever they like.'

Beth seized her friend's hands. ‘Listen, Sally. I told you I'd look after you.'

‘But that was against lecherous men.' Sally's laugh sounded dangerously unbalanced. ‘You'd chase suitors away with a sweeping brush!'

‘We
will
win. Eleanor has made those bombs of hers. We can use them.'

Alec agreed. ‘Then we best keep them nearby at all times.'

Sally appeared calmer, yet her teeth clicked together as she trembled. ‘But . . . we . . . we aren't s–safe here. The windows . . . They could just force the latch. And this place is all windows. There are dozens and—'

Beth tightened her grip on the quaking hands. ‘I've thought of a solution. We'll go to Theo's cottage. Those windows are covered with iron bars.'

‘But it's across the yard. We'd have to go outside.'

‘Worry not Sally, dear.'
Beth forced herself to smile. I just hope it's a reassuring one – not a mad grin.
‘When we cross the yard we'll have bottles full of that volatile, fiery, and oh-so-destructive X-Stock. So – vampires beware!'

‘Yes . . . I . . . ah, guess . . .'

Beth realized she'd nearly managed to help Sally recover her nerve.

Alec closed the window against the dangerous night. ‘We might be safe in the cottage. However, that doesn't help us save Eleanor.'

‘That's why we need the help of her brother.' Beth nodded with certainty. ‘Theo's going to be our ally.'

Seven

For Sally Wainwright, the hotel could have become a nightmare castle. In her overwrought mental state, her senses became distorted. Walls appeared to slope inwards, perilously close to her head. Corridors transformed into impossibly long tunnels that vanished into shadows. And in those places engulfed by darkness vampires would lurk. She was sure of it. Doorways resembled gaping mouths that longed to swallow her. Ornamental plasterwork around light switches appeared to be diseased things that bulged out through the wallpaper. Down the stairs they went to the lobby. Tommy sat on the carpet beside his faithful dog. He played with a toy truck. A monster with the voice of a little boy.

The creature sang out happily, ‘Thanks for the wagon, Beth. It's really good.'

They descended into the basement. Chill currents of air sighed up through the grate. Alec and Beth walked alongside Sally – yet, to her, they seemed far away. She wondered:
if I talk to them will they hear me?
Have we entered a dream world, where normal things aren't normal any more? Where boys are vampires. And they run with black dogs. Will we turn into what Tommy has become? Will we sleep during the day, then roam at night? Forever lost.
Beth had begun to speak, although Sally found it hard to understand the words.
Maybe I'm having a nervous breakdown?
Yet I must still look normal to them. I think I must be answering their questions when they speak. I'm just not sure of anything any more . . .
Beth's voice echoed from the basement walls. Beneath the iron grate, water swirled around the bottom of the pit. White bubbles, brown weed.
Do all of Whitby's houses have tunnels that connect them to the sea?

Alec's voice shimmered in this tomb of a place. ‘. . . then we must be careful with the bottles. The X-Stock has more pep than TNT.'

Beth: ‘The bottles are only half full of the chemical, to make sure they're light enough to throw easily.'

‘These are nasty bombs, Beth, very nasty indeed. They might be more dangerous to us than the vampires.'

‘Nevertheless . . .'

‘I know. We don't have an alternative, do we?'

Beth touched Sally's arm. ‘You stay here. Keep an eye on the basement door.'

At that moment, Sally couldn't say why the pair acted in such a way. They brought crates of bottles from a storeroom. They set them down, then returned for more. The breeze made the light bulb swing on the end of its flex. Sally watched the shadows. Ghosts, marching as if to war. She tried to catch her breath, because she'd become light-headed. Legions of tramping shadows held her gaze. While in her mind's eye, she pictured that silent building above her; the dozens of empty quarters. Rooms as still as graves. And through the windows . . . those fragile, so easily broken windows . . . the vampires would enter. Then, fleet of foot, they'd pad down here.
They'll grab me with those ice-cold hands. They'll enjoy the fear on my face. Then they'll bite and keep biting . . . until I become one of those monsters, too.

Beth and Alec's voices whispered from the storeroom. The pair were out of sight. What wasn't out of sight were the two vampires in the pit beneath the grate. A young man in a soldier's uniform, and a woman with thick, red hair. Both had stark, white faces that matched the whites of their eyes. Black veins wormed beneath the flesh of their necks. As they leered at Sally, they both raised their arms, then began to heave at the cast iron grate. Though it possessed an enormous weight, those creatures gloried in a formidable strength. Expressions gloating, mouths opening to reveal white teeth set in tumescent red gums, they pushed upwards.

Sally found she could do nothing but watch them. She couldn't move her limbs. The echoing voices of Beth and Alec seemed impossibly distant. What had once been a soldier stared up at her through the bars with such intensity he already seemed to be drawing the life force from her body. Slowly, the grate began to rise. Dirt flaked from the edges, where it parted from the frame.

Sally pictured her parents grieving over the loss of their daughter. Her ambition had been to act in films. Yet it was more than that. Her parents lived a poor life in a damp house. Her father was an invalid. This film had been Sally's big chance to change her family's life for the better. Now the dream was being stolen from her. Suddenly, she thought:
No, you're not taking my life from me. I won't let you!
Her hatred for those life-robbing monsters powered her limbs; it gave the woman renewed strength.

Sally grabbed one of the bottles from the crate; she raised it in her clenched fist. Then, like Zeus hurling thunderbolts, she threw the bottle. The glass container struck the ironwork. Shattered. Blue liquid gleamed in the electric light, spraying downwards through the gate's bars – and into the faces of the vampires.

Then the volcano erupted.

Or so it seemed to Sally. A column of fire spewed from the pit in the floor. It struck the brickwork of the vaulted roof with the power of a blowtorch.

And in that crucible of fire . . . in that furnace . . . two figures screamed in agony. Though they still gripped the bars above their heads, the hands were those of skeletons. Flesh ignited, muscle exploded from the bone; veins were burning fuses.

Then the blazing wreckage of the two bodies dropped into the seawater at the bottom of the pit.

Sally panted as she stood there, her eyes fixed on the dead vampires. Then she realized that Beth and Alec had entered basement. Both stared at her in astonishment.

Sally took a deep breath. ‘I enjoyed that. No, I didn't.' Her voice rose to a full-blooded shout.
‘I loved it! I hurt them! And it feels wonderful!'

Eight

The pace quickened. Beth found canvas satchels in the wine cellar where the X-Stock had been kept. Clearly, Eleanor intended these to carry the bottles in at least relative safety. That resourceful woman had adapted each satchel by inserting a thick, inner layer made from blue velvet. This had been stitched to form cells that would house individual bottle bombs. The velvet would at least stop the bag full of bottles clashing together. For, if one broke in the bag, the results would be too terrible to contemplate.

Six of these had been prepared. Alec claimed two. As they loaded the home-made bombs into the bags, they discovered each satchel would accommodate ten bottles.

‘The bags will be heavy,' Alec told them. ‘Don't make sudden movements, or the weight could topple you.'

‘We'll be careful,' Beth told him. ‘Are you sure you can carry two, Alec?'

‘What a big hairy Scotsman like me? It'll be no more arduous than carrying a pair of lace handkerchiefs.'