My Immortal The Vampires of Berlin (13 page)

Mikhail, a tall soldier with a dark ruddy complexion, noticed that Wolf was still breathing. He kicked him hard in the kidneys. “This one is still alive!” he shouted. Then he put his rifle to Wolf’s head and prepared to put him out of his misery.

“Hold your fire,” Boris ordered.

“You had your fun,” Mikhail said. “Let me kill this German pig.”

“Stand down, Mikhail. This one is an officer. We’ll get something for him. Maybe some more Czech wine,” Boris replied.

Wolf groaned as the enemy soldiers debated his fate in a language that he couldn’t understand.

Finally, Mikhail relented. “
Schnell! Schnell!
Get up, you swine!” he shouted.

Wolf got up.
So this is how it ends,
he thought. He said a silent prayer and wondered how painful his death at the hands of the Russians was going to be.

Mikhail’s eyes widened when he saw the Iron Cross. He ripped it from Wolf’s jacket and threw it onto the floor. Then he hit his new prisoner over the head with his rifle.

Fade to black...

25

The gunfire and screaming in the Hotel Neptune stopped. Lyudmila peered through the scope and smiled when she saw Boris through what had been a window prior to the
Katyusha
strike. The doomed patrol had been avenged.

Lyudmila got her chance to fight after Stalin threw thousands of poorly trained and pitifully armed men into battle to stem the Nazi invasion and the casualty numbers soared. She learned her craft quickly and became one of the most feared and celebrated snipers in the Soviet Red Army, with over 200 kills to her name. A sniper sheds no tears for her victims, of course, especially Nazis. However, Lyudmila often wondered if it was true that her victims never actually heard the gunshot.

She adjusted the scope and peered down below. The position had been chosen carefully; it concealed her and provided an unobstructed view of the street. If any Germans were stupid enough to try to retake the Neptune, she would rain death down upon them, one hot piece of lead at a time.

As if on cue, a young kid with an oversized helmet ran down the street with a
Panzerfaust.
Lyudmila smiled and put little Dieter Hübner in the crosshairs. She whispered the words that she uttered before every kill. “
I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life
.”

As her finger tightened around the trigger, an icy breeze swept across the rooftop. Lyudmila shivered as she pulled the trigger. The round missed the boy and struck a cement column. Dieter scurried for cover behind a burned-out halftrack before she could get another shot off
.

Goddamn it,
she thought.
Where the hell is Ruslan? How long does it take to piss off a roof?

Behind her, and entirely unnoticed, two dark fast-moving shapes darted across the rooftops.

As Lyudmila scoured the street to relocate her target, another icy breeze rushed across the roof. She looked back as the cold wind swirled around her.

Suddenly, Lyudmila was gone. Only her rifle, bouncing on the roof, remained.

26

The Russian soldiers gathered around Eva. The outcome was certain; the only question was who was going to go first.

The young vampire wasn’t afraid of the dirty men who were pressing in on her. “
They are coming for me,”
she whispered.

“This stupid girl thinks that the garbage German army is going to rescue her,” Mikhail chuckled.

“She’ll be waiting for 500 years,” Boris replied as he shouldered his rifle. “It’s all over but the crying—there won’t be anything left of the
Wehrmacht
when we’re done with it.”

“
They are coming for me,”
she whispered again, looking the Russian officer right in the eye.

Boris pulled her close and licked her ear from top to bottom. “No one is coming for you,
fräulein
. You and all German women have become the property of the Soviet Red Army. You are
my
property.”

“
They’re here
,” Eva whispered. “
And you’re going to bleed tonight. You’re all going to bleed tonight.”
There was excitement in her voice, as if she were a child describing an upcoming birthday party.

Boris nervously backed away and looked around. When he didn’t see anything out of the ordinary for the aftermath of a brutal gunfight, he relaxed. “This one is feisty,” he said.

“And crazy,” Mikhail added. The men laughed hard until the candles blew out. Then they grabbed their weapons and fearfully tried to pick out unseen targets in the darkness. A minute went by, but nothing happened.

“Boo!” Boris shouted, causing Mikhail to jump.

The men laughed again as Boris relit the candles. They were having a good time. But when they turned their attention back to Eva, she made an ominous statement. “
Russian soldiers, be afraid. Be very afraid of the dark
.”

Then the candles blew out and the room was again enveloped in darkness. All of the sudden, the good times didn’t seem so good. Something was wrong. Very wrong.

Without warning, two dark shapes flew through the windows and the Russians instantly found themselves in a desperate fight for their lives. Unfortunately for them, it was not a battle that they were capable of winning. The intruders were fast and deadly, and only one soldier got a shot off before he had been eviscerated. After that lone gunshot, the only sounds to be heard in the darkness were the screams and whimpers of dying men. After one final loud crunch, the room went still.

The candles relit by themselves. The Russians were dead, their bodies scattered all around the room in a gory mess. Mikhail was folded in half. Backwards.

Vampires Zina and Dumitra stood over the massacre. The beautiful twins had long straight burgundy hair and angular facial features. They were dressed in black from head to toe, but the dark clothing didn’t hide their victim’s blood.

“We missed one,” Zina said, pointing to the corner where Boris stood alone and shook with fright.

Dumitra playfully shook her finger at him. “You have been naughty, commander. You were brave enough to molest the young girl, but you ran away while your men valiantly fought for their lives. What should we do about that?”

Boris panicked and ran for the door. When he got there, it slammed shut on its own. Terrified, he grabbed the doorknob and pulled with all of his might. It wouldn’t budge. He cursed his fate. Then he turned around slowly and put his hands up. Stalin had ordered the suicide of every officer rather than surrender; Soviet military law regarded POWs as traitors. But Boris didn’t think comrade Stalin had vampires in mind when he issued that order.

“What’s the matter? You don’t like the girl anymore?” Zina asked. “Maybe she is not sexy enough for you. Perhaps you will like my sexy better.”

Boris trembled as the gorgeous vampire put her arm around him. When she seductively licked his ear from top to bottom exactly as he had done to Eva, piss ran down his leg.

“Shhhhh. Do not be afraid,” Zina said. “I like Russians. Do you—Mr. not-so-brave Russian soldier—like my sexy?”

Boris smiled nervously as she kissed his neck.

“Do you?”

“Yes,” Boris replied. Unaware of the fate of his snipers, he thought Lyudmila would take them out if he got them closer to the windows.

Any hopes or strategies for survival that Boris Kolachenko may have had that night instantly disappeared when Zina bit his neck and tore out a chunk of bloody flesh.

As her victim writhed in pain and bled to death on the floor in front of her, Zina turned her attention to the very reason that she had come to the Hotel Neptune. “We missed you.”

Eva didn’t respond. She just knelt down beside Sebastian and held his hand. A single tear rolled down her cheek.

Zina didn’t notice the bite marks on the soldier’s hand when she pulled Eva away from him. “Come with us, dear. There will be many more German soldiers for you to feast on before this night is over.”

Wolf regained consciousness as Zina spoke. He couldn’t make out what she was saying, but she wore black and his Russian tormentors had obviously been killed in a spectacular and somewhat creative fashion. To Wolf’s line of reasoning, that could only mean one thing—the Gestapo had saved his life.
Unbelievable!

Ordinarily, he couldn’t stand the sight of the bastards who tortured in the name of the Fatherland, but Wolf couldn’t contain his glee. He jumped to his feet and kicked Mikhail’s corpse. “How do you like Berlin now, you backwards-folded borscht-eating heathen! God is with
us
!”

Zina’s response brought him crashing back to reality. “God is not with you, Nazi scum. Your kind is poison to this planet and to all life on it. You and all those like you shall burn in hell with Adolf Hitler.”

Wolf stopped in his tracks and tried to comprehend the situation. He wasn’t dealing with the Gestapo.
But who are they?
The enemy
?
But they kill Russians.
Run or negotiate?
Then he remembered a quote that made the decision for him.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend
.

He smiled and tried to look as non-threatening as possible as he picked up his Iron Cross and showed it to them. “I’m a decorated officer. I can get you on a plane.”

Dumitra shielded her eyes and bared her razor-sharp fangs. Wolf dropped the medal. His mind raced and came to a stunning conclusion that sent a chill down his spine—
vampires
had saved him from the Russians.
Fucking vampires. What kind of miserable screwed-up scenario is this?

As Wolf contemplated making diplomatic overtures to vampires among his dwindling options, Zina kicked a pistol across the floor towards him. “We have our own way out of your wretched city,” she explained. “But when the Russians catch you again, use the pistol.”

“But ... I ...” he stammered.

“On yourself.”

27