Simon Green - The Dark Side of the Road

Her stench was almost overpowering now, up close: the smell of blood and slaughter about to happen.

And then she turned and vaulted over the banisters, jumping all the way down to the hall below. I grabbed up the candle from where it had fallen out of its holder, sheltering the flame with my hand, and hurried over to the banister to look down. Sylvia was still falling, gentle as a leaf. She landed easily in the hallway, graceful as a cat. She didn’t make a sound. Just looked up at me, and smiled, and moved silently down the hall. I shouldn’t have been able to see her in the deep dark gloom, but she wanted me to.

I ran back to the top of the stairs. Sylvia was still drifting down the hall, silent as any ghost. She stopped before the drawing room door. It was almost closed, just a thin slice of light falling out into the hall. For whatever reason, Leilah wasn’t there, watching. Sylvia considered the door carefully, and then knocked: three quick, and two hard and slow. She had been listening.

There was the sound of furniture being dragged back, and then the door swung inwards and Leilah looked out, expecting to see me. Sylvia lunged forward and slammed the door open with one hand, and I heard the barricade beyond the door collapse and fall backwards. Leilah stepped forward and shot Sylvia repeatedly in the face. It didn’t even slow the vampire down. Sylvia grabbed Leilah’s head with both hands and ripped it off. I cried out, but Sylvia didn’t even look back. Leilah’s body slumped slowly, to sit on the floor, blood pumping and jetting from the ragged neck stump. Sylvia held the head right up before her rotting face and smiled happily into Leilah’s still rolling eyes. The mouth tried to say something, until Sylvia stopped it with a kiss.

The vampire threw the head aside, and it bounced and rolled away down the dark hall and out of sight. Sylvia leant over the headless body, thrust her face into the still-spurting stump, and drank greedily. And then she stood up, wiped at her dripping mouth with the back of one hand, and strode forward into the drawing room.

In the time it took for all this to happen, I jumped over the banisters and dropped heavily through the air. I braced myself as best I could. I seemed to hang on the air for ages, and then I slammed into the floor, hard enough to crack the wooden boards. The impact knocked the breath out of me for a moment, and I dropped my candle. The light had gone out anyway. But I still held on to my wooden stick. I ran down the hall and back into the drawing room.

And all the way, I could hear Sylvia laughing.

When I burst through the open door, Khan and Penny had retreated all the way across the room, to stand with their backs pressed against the far wall, facing Sylvia. Khan had smashed up a chair, with some last desperate strength, to make a wooden stake from one of the chair legs. Penny had one of the other legs, and she threw it at Sylvia with all her strength. The vampire slapped it easily aside.

‘You killed my daddy, and my mummy, you bitch!’ yelled Penny. ‘I’ll find a way to kill you!’

‘I never get tired of hearing that,’ said Sylvia. ‘Warms my old heart … But better than you have tried, Penny my sweet, and I’m still here, and they aren’t. Now, hush and hold still. It’s feeding time. You don’t want to leave an ugly corpse for whoever finds you, do you?’

‘Get behind me, Penny,’ Khan said roughly.

‘Oh, how lovely!’ said Sylvia, clapping her dead hands together. ‘A last minute hero! I love those …’

Penny tore her gaze away from the bloody-faced vampire to look at Khan. He was looking steadily at Sylvia, the wooden chair leg shaking just a bit in his hand. Penny fell back a step, to stand behind Khan. The trust she placed in Khan seemed to encourage him, and the chair leg was suddenly steady. Sylvia moved slowly forward, taking her time, savouring the moment. I stayed where I was, in the doorway, trying desperately to come up with some plan that wouldn’t get the other two killed. I didn’t dare move. If I did anything to let Sylvia know I was there, she might kill the other two immediately, just to spite me.

‘Never thought to see you play the hero, Alex,’ said Sylvia. ‘Bit out of character for you, isn’t it? The man who only ever cared for himself?’

‘You make it easy,’ said Khan. It was clear he wanted to back away, but he wouldn’t let himself show weakness in front of the vampire. ‘You’re so corrupt, you make me look good. I have to be the hero, Sylvia, because I couldn’t bear to be like you.’

‘Now that’s not a very nice thing to say,’ said Sylvia. ‘Bad things happen to people who say bad things.’

Khan’s face was grey with fear, but he stood his ground and glared at her defiantly, still holding his wooden stake out before him.

‘We talked,’ he said hoarsely. ‘You and me. We shared confidences. I thought I knew you …’

‘You don’t,’ said Sylvia. ‘No one does.’

‘So what’s it like?’ said Khan. ‘Being dead?’

Sylvia surprised me then, by stopping her advance to consider the question carefully. ‘Undead, dear,’ she said finally. ‘It’s very … freeing. I love it! And any moment now, I’ll love you. For as long as you last.’

‘Do you remember anything, of what your life was like before this?’ Khan said desperately. ‘Don’t you miss it?’

‘It’s always so sweet,’ said Sylvia, ‘When the prey wants to talk. To beg or bargain with me … to try and understand the horrible thing that’s happening to them … To hold off the dreadful moment, with one last attempt at communication … To bridge the gap between us. Well, Alex dear, life was a nightmare from which I have woken up. Free, at last! No conscience, no mortality, no civilized chains to hold me down or hold me back. I can do whatever I want, now, and I do!’

‘You kill people!’ said Penny, from behind Khan. ‘That’s all you do! You destroy lives!’

‘That’s what they’re for,’ said Sylvia. ‘I feed and I kill; I butcher and I slaughter … and it’s all such fun! I’ll tell you what, Alex dear; give me the girl. Give me Penny … and I’ll let you go.’

Penny glanced anxiously at Khan, but give the man his due, he didn’t flinch and he didn’t hesitate.

‘Never,’ he said.

‘Ah, well,’ said Sylvia. ‘Worth a try. I do so love it when they turn on each other to please me.’

She darted forward impossibly quickly and slapped the wooden chair leg out of Khan’s hand with such force that it flew across the room and buried itself half its length in the wall. Sylvia jumped on Khan and sank her teeth into his neck, biting deep, worrying at the bloody flesh. Khan swayed on his feet, but didn’t fall. Sylvia wouldn’t let him. He made a sick, horrified sound, and tried to push her away from him, but already there was no strength left in his arms. He was dying, and he knew it. Blood coursed down the front of him as Sylvia worried at his neck with her sharp teeth. Penny beat at Sylvia’s head and shoulders with her fists, trying to drive the vampire away, but Sylvia didn’t even notice her.

Khan slowly raised one hand and dipped it into the blood running down his front. He put a fingertip to Sylvia’s forehead and drew a cross there. Her head snapped back, and she glared at him with foully shining eyes. And then she broke his neck, with a sudden spiteful move. The sound of bones breaking was very loud on the quiet. Sylvia threw the dead body aside and grabbed Penny by the arm. Penny fought the vampire fiercely, but couldn’t break free. Sylvia pulled her forward, so they were face to face, and Penny spat in Sylvia’s eye.

The vampire spun Penny around, still holding on to her arm, and glared at me. I was still standing in the doorway; she’d known I was there all along. Everything had happened so quickly that I still hadn’t worked out what I was going to do. Sylvia was so much faster than me, stronger than me …