Khan advanced on Sylvia, holding out two silver candlesticks, crossed to form a crucifix. Sylvia laughed at them, entirely unaffected. I hit her in the side of the head with my fist, putting all my strength into it. I felt her rotten flesh spatter under the impact, heard the bone in her skull crack and break, but her head didn’t move an inch, soaking up the impact. If I’d hit her any harder I’d have broken my hand.
While Sylvia was distracted by all this, Leilah grabbed up Walter’s discarded walking stick, from where he’d left it leaning against the wall. She broke it in two with a single savage blow, to give herself an improvised sharp stake, and then she lunged forward, aiming her stake at Sylvia’s chest. And Sylvia grabbed Melanie by the arm and hauled the poor shrieking woman in front of her. Leilah’s stake slammed into Melanie’s chest and punched right through, protruding from Melanie’s back.
She died without making a sound. Sylvia let her go, and Melanie dropped bonelessly to the floor. Leilah cried out in shock and horror.
And while everyone was distracted by that, Sylvia ran across the room impossibly quickly, hauled the locked door open, and ran out into the corridor, laughing happily. By the time I got to the door and looked out after her, Sylvia had already reached the far end. She pulled open the front door and ran out into the cold and the night. Still laughing.
Back in the drawing room, Jeeves was comforting Leilah, who looked like she wanted to cry but didn’t know how. Penny was kneeling beside her dead mother looking much the same.
Khan stared at me, his eyes wide with shock and disbelief. ‘It’s you!’ he said loudly. ‘You’re him! Not your father. You’re the man I worked beside, all those years ago … except, you haven’t aged a day. I still remember watching you fight that Baba Yaga clone in Moscow, back in ’eighty-eight. I never saw anyone who could fight like you …’
‘Save the reunion for later,’ I said.
‘But aren’t you going to explain?’
‘No,’ I said. ‘Not now. Sylvia’s gone outside. We have to find and destroy her.’
‘She won’t leave the grounds,’ said Penny. She rose unsteadily to her feet. I went to offer her my hand, and then pulled it back as she looked at me. She was trying hard to hang on to her self-control. To concentrate on what mattered. She took a deep breath. ‘If Sylvia could have left, in this storm, she would have right after she killed James. So she can’t. The storm traps her here. She’ll try to hide in one of the outbuildings. The tithe barn, or the cottages.’
‘If we go outside, she’ll kill us,’ said Khan. ‘She’ll have all the advantages out there.’
‘We have to go after her,’ I said. ‘Or she’ll just sneak back in and pick us off one at a time. Or hide out in one of the buildings, till the storm drops off enough for her to escape.’
‘She kept saying she wanted to leave,’ said Jeeves, just a bit shakily, ‘if only someone would go with her …’
‘Someone had a lucky escape there,’ I said. ‘If anyone had volunteered, she would have fed on them to keep her going. Used their strength to get her to the nearest village. We can’t let her get away. We have to find her.’
Leilah went over to stand before Penny. ‘I’m so sorry. I killed your mother.’
‘That’s all right,’ said Penny. ‘We weren’t close.’
Ten
And then there were five.
Penny and Leilah stood over the dead body of Melanie Belcourt. The wooden stick still protruded from her chest, because no one felt like touching it yet. Melanie’s face wore an expression of sullen regret, as though this was what she’d been expecting all along. Leilah looked shocked. Penny looked like she didn’t know what she should be feeling. Alexander Khan stood well back from everyone, staring at me with awful fascination. Jeeves was still doing his best to seem professional. I walked over to him, and he looked at me sharply, the gun jerking briefly in his hand. As though he felt he should be pointing it at someone.
‘Well,’ I said. ‘That could have gone better.’
‘You think?’ said Jeeves.
‘She’s out there,’ I said. ‘Sylvia. Waiting for us to go and search for her.’
‘And you think that’s a good idea?’ said Jeeves.
‘Better than waiting for her to come back and pick us off one at a time,’ I said. ‘She wants us to barricade ourselves in here and feel safe. She can survive the cold long enough for that. And then she’ll break in, supernaturally quietly, and move unheard through the house … Unless we take the fight to her.’
Jeeves nodded slowly. ‘We have to take back the advantage. Get the element of surprise on our side. But can we really kill a thing like that?’
‘Guns won’t do it,’ I said. ‘But there are other things we can try.’
‘We can’t all go,’ said Jeeves. ‘Too many people stumbling around out there would just make it easy for her. She could pick us off one by one, ambushing us from out of the fog and the snow. And besides, not all of us are up to it.’
‘Right,’ I said. ‘I think you and I should go take a look outside, while Leilah stands guard over the others.’
‘I heard that!’ Leilah said immediately. ‘You don’t give me orders!’
‘No, he doesn’t,’ said Jeeves. ‘I do. Ishmael’s going outside because he knows the most about that … creature. And I’m going, because that’s my job.’
‘It’s my job too!’ said Leilah. ‘How come you get to go out and play the hero, while I have to stay behind and look after the children? I have a right to go after Sylvia! She tricked me into killing Melanie!’
‘I know,’ said Jeeves, not unkindly. ‘And that’s why you can’t go, Leilah. Look at you, girl. Still shaking, still upset. Sylvia would take advantage of that. Tracking her down is going to take a cool head and cold professionalism. Revenge would only get in the way. Ishmael and I will kill this vampire in extremely cold blood.’
Leilah came forward, to stand before her husband. ‘You’ve never had to do that before.’
‘Neither have you,’ said Jeeves. ‘I will spare you that, if I can. So; guard the guests while we’re gone. Don’t take any nonsense from them. And avenge me if I don’t come back.’
‘Come back,’ said Leilah.
While they were talking, Penny gave me a hard look, so I went over to stand with her. She’d turned away from her mother’s body, so she wouldn’t have to look at it. She met my gaze steadily. ‘Why can’t I go with you? I thought we made a pretty good team.’
‘We do,’ I said. ‘As detectives. But this is killing business, now. You have no experience in that area, and trust me, you’re better off without it.’
‘So what am I supposed to do? Just … stand around, wringing my hands, till you come back? Or until it’s clear you won’t be coming back? I need to do something, Ishmael!’
‘Leilah can’t guard this room on her own,’ I said quietly. ‘If Jeeves and I can’t find Sylvia, if she slips past us, she will come back here. She wants everyone dead. For revenge; for defying her … and to ensure there are no witnesses. So; you work with Leilah and Khan to make this room safe, so Jeeves and I don’t have to worry about you while we’re gone. Can you do that?’
‘Of course I can,’ said Penny. ‘If you don’t come back … I will avenge you, Ishmael. I will hammer a stake through that bitch’s rotten heart and spit in her eyes as she dies.’
‘Of course you will,’ I said. ‘Wouldn’t expect anything less.’
‘And afterwards?’ said Penny. ‘If there is an afterwards? What about you and me? Could you use a new partner?’
‘I usually work alone,’ I said. ‘It’s safer that way. For me and for everyone else. I walk the dark side of the road, Penny. I live alone because I hurt fewer people that way.’
‘That’s no way to live,’ said Penny.
She took me in her arms, and we held each other for a long moment.