Carpathia (33 page)
Authors: Matt Forbeck
"You're mortals, and you spend your time fearing gods before destroying them." Murtagh tossed the pipe to one side and bared his fangs, preparing to feed. "Well, it's time for the gods to fight back."
Murtagh fell on Quin and grabbed him by the head, forcing him to bare his throat. Quin struggled against him as hard as he could, but the vampire's grasp was like a steel vice from which he could not break free. Quin punched at Murtagh until his knuckles bled, but the vampire ignored every blow as he darted in for the kill with his ferocious teeth.
Before those fangs punctured Quin's skin, though, Lucy leaped on Murtagh's back and stabbed her crucifix down into the nape of the vampire's neck.
"You're no god," she said. "Only a devil!"
Murtagh arched his spine in agony and howled in unforgivable anguish, flinging Lucy off his back as if she were a murderous child. He pushed himself off of Quin and reached back to where his skin was already bubbling away at the point the crucifix had entered his flesh. He plucked the wooden icon from his dissolving muscles and held it out before him, gaping at it in immortal horror.
Quin saw the bones from Murtagh's fingers already showing through his hand as the meat there dripped away to land in sizzling puddles on the deck. The destruction spread fast from there, lancing up Murtagh's arm to consume it whole and stretching forward from the base of his neck to expose his naked skull.
The man flopped over like a marionette with severed strings and collapsed in an awkward heap of snapping tendons and vanishing flesh. Soon, there was nothing left of him but a naked skeleton, its bones already bleached white by the last bubbling bits of its skin.
Quin shoved himself to his feet and fell into Lucy's welcoming arms. He held her tight as she shuddered against him.
"Are you all right?" she said.
He nodded against her. "Yes."
"Thank God," she said. She looked up at him, smiling through tears, weeping in relief.
"No, Luce." Quin kissed her lips, soft and warm and full of life. "Thank you."
Abe staggered up to them then, the wound in his side already knitting back together, as Quin could see through his tattered clothes. He gave Murtagh's remains a wide berth. "Is it over?" he said.
Quin and Lucy each reached out an arm and brought Abe into their embrace. They held each other there for a long moment, one that Quin hoped would never come to and end. Once they let each other go, they'd have to deal with the aftermath of what had just happened, of everything they'd done, and he didn't know how he could manage that.
The ship's deck pitched even harder to starboard then, and Abe had to hold Lucy and Quin tight to make sure they didn't go sliding down the polished wood, topple over the railing, and tumble into the silent sea. In the distance, Quin could hear people screaming in fear and shouting orders. He glanced back down the length of the ship and saw lifeboats being rowed away from the ship, filled with women, children, and even many men.
"We need to go too," Quin said. "We can't stay here."
Lucy nodded as she wiped the tears from her cheeks. "I can't believe it," she said. "To think that this nightmare is finally over."
"I'm afraid that's not quite true yet." Abe grimaced and gestured to himself. "We still have one vampire left."
Getting to the lifeboat that Elisabetta had cut loose had been difficult, but the three of them managed it. They wanted to make sure they had their own boat, so they were willing to leap into the icy waters and make the long swim to where it had floated away. Quin was grateful that Lucy had suggested they take the time to bind up his leg before they set out. Otherwise, he was sure he would have passed out from lack of blood.
Once they reached the lifeboat, Abe had lifted them in and found blankets in the storage compartments that had been buried beneath the graveyard dirt. He wrapped Lucy and Quin in them and had set to the oars himself, working tirelessly to bring them toward the distant shore that Quin had spotted before. As soon as Quin had stopped shivering, he'd insisted on lending a hand, but Abe had refused.
"Save your strength," Abe had said. "You'll need it come dawn."
They had yet to reach the shore when the first rays of the imminent sunrise broke over the eastern horizon. They spotted a few bats flying high overhead, ones that they guessed had become disoriented in the night and not known which way to fly. Now that they had wandered close enough to the shore to see it, they made a beeline for it.
Quin could tell, though, that they would never reach land in time. A couple of them that were higher up in the air burst into flames as they flapped along, falling into the sea like shooting stars that screamed. Others hung closer to the waves, avoiding direct exposure to the oncoming sunlight for now, although Quin was sure that they would run out of time soon.
After the first bat fell burning from the sky like a little Icarus, they took the remaining blankets out and wrapped Abe in them. Then they folded the remnants of the lifeboat's canvas cover over that in as many layers as they could manage. Then Quin and Lucy shoved Abe as tight as they could under a seat and covered any exposed bits as best they could with their legs.
"How do we know if that will be enough?" Lucy said.
"We don't." Quin eyed the sun as the top of it broke over the horizon. "But we'll find out soon enough."
The two of them sat there in the boat and held hands as the sun rose higher into the sky. After a little while, its rays reached over the top of the lifeboat's gunwale and spilled down into the boat. They kept a close eye on the bundle beneath them as sunlight coated more and more of the interior. When the rays fell square on one end of the bundle they'd been unable to completely cover, they held their breath and waited for some sort of reaction from the friend they'd buried beneath so many things.
Quin and Lucy had seen the vampires burst into flames as they emerged from the
Carpathia
's hold. They knew what would happen if even the slightest bit of sunlight managed to penetrate the materials with which they'd covered Abe. They'd only have seconds to leap clear of him themselves before the conflagration scorched them too, and there was a real chance that the blaze would destroy their lifeboat and leave them floating in the sea, still a long way from land.
Carpathia
's hold. They knew what would happen if even the slightest bit of sunlight managed to penetrate the materials with which they'd covered Abe. They'd only have seconds to leap clear of him themselves before the conflagration scorched them too, and there was a real chance that the blaze would destroy their lifeboat and leave them floating in the sea, still a long way from land.
Nothing happened.
Lucy and Quin exhaled then and held each other and allowed themselves to enjoy a single sweet and tender kiss. Then they set to the oars and rowed for the still-distant shore.
"It bothers me to think of Abe under all those things," Lucy said as they neared land. "I know he can't breathe beneath all that."
"He doesn't need to breathe, Luce. Not any more."
"I know," she said. "That's what bothers me."
About midday, they reached a barren patch of shoreline and beached the boat. After a short rest, they worked together, using the oars as levers, to flip the boat over with Abe still inside. After checking to make sure he was still all right, they took shelter in the shade the boat provided and fell asleep.
They awoke as the sun set over the land on which they sat, and Quin thought that he had perhaps never seen such a lovely thing in his life. They were parched and hungry, so Quin crawled under the overturned boat and found some bottles of water and crackers in one of its storage compartments. He and Lucy had just finished making a light meal of his findings when they heard something under the boat start rustling around.
Quin and Lucy reached under the boat and hauled the bundle of blankets in which Abe lay wrapped out into the open air. They carefully unwrapped the first few layers around him and then cried out in surprise when the blankets collapsed into an empty pile of cloth. A white mist leaked out of the fabric and soon reformed in front of them as their undead friend.
"Thank you," Abe said. "That may have been the longest day of my life."
"Last night was certainly the longest of mine," Quin said.
"Worse than when the
Titanic
sank?" asked Lucy.
Titanic
sank?" asked Lucy.
Quin weighed the two torturous nights back and forth in his hands. "Close enough," he finally said.
They laughed together at that, and Quin reveled in delight at the sound, holding onto it for as long as he could. The three of them stood there in silence then, watching the last bits of the sunset fade across the sky from crimson red to black. None of them wanted to speak, for they knew the questions that must be asked, and they feared the answers.
In the end, Lucy could take it no more. "What do we do from here?" she said.
Quin and Abe glanced at her and then traded uncomfortable looks. "I suppose my plan's the same as ever," said Quin. "I'm heading to New York to look for work."
Lucy nodded. "And I have university starting in the fall. It's a long time until then though."
They both remained quiet then, waiting for Abe to speak.
"I want to live," he said.
"Even like this?" Lucy said.
He raised his eyes to peer at her, but his gaze was so intense that she had to look away. He nodded and looked down at his hands, which Quin thought seemed as human as ever, if a bit pale.
"I'm a monster," he said. "I know. But that doesn't mean I have to live like one."
"How can you say that?" Lucy shuddered. "Don't you have to feed on human blood?"
"We don't know that," Quin said. "We don't know anything other than what Uncle Bram wrote in that blasted book, and who can say how much of that was true."
"Some of it, certainly," Abe said, "but maybe not all."
Lucy's head bobbed up and down as she considered this. "And what happens if it turns out that it is?" She looked up then to see the look of dismay on Quin and Abe's faces. "I don't mean to– I just killed a vampire last night. I don't know if I can handle doing that again."
"Would you kill me, Lucy?" Quin had to strain his ears to make out Abe's whisper. "I don't mean that as an accusation. I'm being serious. Would you do it if I asked you to?"
Lucy lowered her face into her hands, and her shoulders began to shake. "You can't ask that of me, Abe," she said. "You can't. Not ever."
Abe sighed. "I don't plan to Lucy, but if the monster inside me turns out to be something I cannot control…"
Lucy turned toward Quin then and buried her face in his shoulder. Her tears soon soaked through his shirt.
Abe looked to Quin and gave him a helpless shrug. Quin gave him a grim nod. "Should it prove necessary, I would be honored."
Abe's shoulders relaxed at this. He stuck out his hand for Quin, who shook it, ignoring just how cold his old friend's skin had become. "Take care of her," Abe said.
"You know I will."
Lucy released Quin then and flung herself into Abe's arms. "Stay with us," she said. "Don't leave."
Abe put his hands on her shoulders and pushed her back far enough that he could look down into her eyes. "I would like nothing more," he said. "But not now. Not yet. Not until I know I can trust myself."
"I was wrong before," she said, sniffling away her tears. "I know you're a good man. We can trust you."
Abe shook his head. "You never were a very good liar, Lucy. That's how I always knew you never loved me."
"I did too!" she said, indignantly. "I still do."
A wan smile crossed Abe's face. "Not the way you love Quin."
Lucy opened her mouth to reply but found she had nothing to say. She clung to Abe again, holding him closer and tighter. "I don't care," she said. "I'm never going to let you go."
"But you can't hold me, darling, no matter how hard you try. No one can." He leaned over and kissed her on the top of the head. The next moment, he was gone, nothing left of him but a white mist on a wind blowing west.
Lucy stood there alone for a moment, then turned and walked to Quin, who had been waiting for her with his arms open wide. She tilted her lips up toward his, and they met in a long and lingering kiss.
She opened her eyes and looked up at him. "Would you consider looking for a job in Boston instead?"
Quin smiled down at her and nodded. "I won't leave you, Luce," he said. "I promise."
Matt Forbeck has worked full-time on fiction and games since 1989. Frankly, he is a creative machine, and thus utterly perfect for Angry Robot. His many publishers include Adams Media, AEG, Atari, Boom! Studios, Atlas Games, Del Rey, Games Workshop, Green Ronin, High Voltage Studios, Human Head Studios, IDW, Image Comics, Mattel, Pinnacle Entertainment Group, Playmates Toys, Simon & Schuster, Ubisoft, Wizards of the Coast, and WizKids. He has written novels, comic books, short stories, non-fiction (including the acclaimed Marvel Encyclopedia), magazine articles and computer game scripts. He has designed collectible card games, roleplaying games, miniatures and board games. His work has been published in at least a dozen different languages.Matt is a proud member of the Alliterates writers group, the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers, and the International Game Developers Association. He lives in Beloit, Wisconsin, USA, with his wife Ann and their children: Marty, and the quadruplets: Pat, Nick, Ken and Helen. (And there's a whole other story.)
Many thanks to my understanding and kind editors and the rest of the team at Angry Robot. Special gratitude to Lee Harris for catching my mistakes and to Marc Gascoigne, our Robot Overlord, for his continuing inspiration.In memory of the more than 1,500 souls who lost their lives when the
Titanic
went down on that fateful night in April of 1912. You may have been gone one hundred years, but no matter how much time passes, we shall never forget.
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