Page 34 (1/2)

PART FIVE

SPQR

FROM THE TIMES OF LONDON, AUGUST 15TH, 1959

Rome An arrest has been made in connection with the murder of Prince Dracula Inspector Silvestri, the detective in charge of the case, has indicated that an Aed with atteht for questioning by Interpol with regards to the disappearance of Richard Fountain, an English vampire

Prince Dracula&039;s remains will be released into the care of his executrix, Miss Penelope Churchward Funeral arrangements have not been announced

Hollywood Jeremy Prokosch, a filin on a three-part filraphy of Count Dracula, to be scripted by Gore Vidal, Clare Quilty and Christopher Fry and shot in Spain and Yugoslavia It is his intention that three different directors will tackle the three crucial periods of the Dracula story, with Riccardo Freda handling Vlad&039;s warm life and rebirth as a vampire, Terence Fisher Dracula&039;s rise and fall in Victorian Britain, and Michael Powell his exile and death A actors mooted for the role are Jack Palance, Francis Lederer, Alexander D&039;Arcy and David Niven

London In an intervieith BBC TV&039;s Panorama, Lord Ruthven, the Prime Minister, has condemned as &039;utterly tasteless&039; the flood of Dracula-related iteoes on to say that he does not deem the late Count&039;s likeness or coat of ars, join-the-dots puzzles, tie-clasps, watch-fobs or beach-blankets&039; The Post Office will, however, issue a set of commeo Pass, Transylvania Baron Meinster, an elder who claiet personally turned by Dracula, delivered an i hi Vampire and that Transylvania should be an independent ho was broken up by members of the Romanian Securitate, and President Nicolae Ceau?escu has branded Meinster &039;a verh he ree Meinster is only the latest of several who have styled themselves &039;Alucard&039; and claimed to be Dracula&039;s heir

Chapter 34

THE JUDGEMENT OF TEARS

This hat Genevieve needed To face a or Brastov was dead, skinned and gutted by the Crimson Executioner He had known about the Mother of Tears, had wanted them to confront her for hile with her creature The Cat Man had been trying to set her, and the spy, against the enemy he most feared, but other matters had distracted the place, beyond her ken In the end, she would have to be involved It was inescapable

Another elder gone, after hundreds of years They werethe world with thereat entrance, elders had passed the centuries in travel, occasionally crossing each other&039;s paths ary courtesy, so as a community

Since Carmilla Karnstein, Genevieve had never counted another vampire elder her friend They were for the most part bloodthirsty bastards Even Carmilla was cracked

Outside the apartment, they paused by Bond&039;s Aston Martin It had a fe bullet scars

&039;We needn&039;t drive,&039; he said &039;It&039;s within sight of here&039;

It was obvious, when she came to think of it There was only one place in Rome for a last stand Charles had noticed the Executioner&039;s habit of staging his atrocities in fa the road

The Colosseu cake sliced with a scythe

The Flavian Amphitheatre - Charles pedantically preferred the proper name - had been built in AD 72 by Vespasian in place of an artificial lake dedicated to Nero, part of an urban rebuilding schened to blot out memory of the murderous Emperor Vespasian hadn&039;t lived to see the sand of the arena bloodied by the first gladiatorial casualties, which lasted until Honorius forbade the killing of man byact, were set against each other for a further century and a half Genevieve knew various conscience-struck Emperors had tried to introduce Greek-style athletics contests, without fatalities, in place of the Roames, but that the public hadn&039;t stood for them Only blood would satisfy the people of Rome She supposed she wasn&039;t in a position to be too fastidiously critical on that point

For centuries, Ros Blood-soaked blocks now made up portions of the Palazzo Venezia, the Cancelleria, St Peter&039;s andhad only ceased in the hteenth century when Pope Benedict XIV proclai on the pious fiction that it was the site of many martyrdoms It was a canard that Christians were fed to lions That wouldn&039;t have been entertainment Instead, the followers of the fisherht as a pri, or simply crucified as trouble-h to hts to the death A thousand years and more before Dracula or Gilles de Rais or Elisabeth Bathory, the public taste for blood was already keen

In the nineteenth century, when Genevieve had been briefly in Role, stones buried in allof n of hope, but the weeds were all tidied away now and the bleached bones of the building exposed again The two storeys of arches thatwith half of the jerry-built addition - replacing a wooden level struck by credibly divine lightning in AD 217 - piled on top The terraces were still there in tiers, awaiting the return of the crowds, but the floor of the arena - the killing stage - was gone, exposing a maze of tunnels and chambers that had been below

&039;I followed him here,&039; said Bond &039;He led n&039;

&039;The Colosseum is a tourist attraction,&039; she said &039;It will be closed at this hour&039;

&039;I doubt that our quarry cares ht&039;

The Venerable Bede had written &039;as long as the Colosseum stands, Rome will stand, and when the Colosseum falls, Rome will fall; but when Rome falls the world will come to an end&039; She wasn&039;t sure whether that was a co prophecy A city, indeed a world, symbolised by this horrid edifice probably didn&039;t deserve to stand

They crossed the Piazza di Colosseo Genevieve wondered if this was the route the gladiators had taken No, they would have been chained under the arena, released only when the crowds had taken their seats

Had any vampires died in the arena? There were nosferatu in ancient Roula - dead before this place was planned - pitting a olf against a shape-shifting va the thu Slowly

Then again, Caligula hadn&039;t thought of the Boh the e a space to fence off

She smelled the stones There were still traces of old blood

&039;Look,&039; said Bond

She rong The blood was fresh, a valadiators would still be in the ground

The trail led through the great arch, into the arena

&039;When we find the Crimson Executioner, Commander Bond? What then?&039;

He didn&039;t answer He wasn&039;t there

She knew soh to creep ahile she wasn&039;t looking She should have felt the draught of his leaving, heard the tiny sounds he couldn&039;t help buthis face?

She couldn&039;t have been ht her here was thedifferent about hi a part But the quality of his acting had changed, beco himself too much with his eyebrows The Scots in his accent had faded

She was in a broad thoroughfare, lined by pillars The ground was rough stone Blood led through the labyrinth Too obvious a trail

Her hackles rose and the fine hair on her arlimpsed a red shape dart behind a pillar Her claws popped

She was no longer stalking a quarry She was herself being stalked

It had to happen, she supposed

She must have been the last elder in Rome She&039;d be the Criht

Kate was still reeling Leaving Marcello, for the last ti it away She couldn&039;t yet nas she had chosen over him, but she burned with a certainty that she had picked salvation over sham, love above self Still, it was not easy or si herself to possibilities that had died with Charles and Dracula rather than the as-yet unborn world she ht have with the warot fro Windows to Parco de Traiano But this here she should be, where Charles had lived, where there were answers and endings

There was vampire blood on the street A sports car was parked across the street from the house, rear end dotted with bullet holes Few people were about, which was odd She was used to Ros happened

A woman came out of Charles&039;s apartment house Genevieve? No, this woth Gherardi overcoat, withblack Her hair was done up under a neat black hat

&039;Katie,&039; Penelope acknowledged &039;I have news&039;

&039;Me too, Penny,&039; Kate said

Penelope daintily sniffed the air, and looked at the ground

&039;That&039;s blood,&039; Penelope observed

Kate swah panic

&039;Penny,&039; she said, &039;ere friends once You must help me The Crimson Executioner is after Genevieve&039;

Penelope was exasperated &039;What are you talking about?&039;

&039;The vampire slayer&039;

&039;You don&039;t understand,&039; Penny cooed, as if everything was all fine and dandy and settled and done &039;The murderer of Dracula is under arrest You&039;re free to leave the city&039;

Kate had to get through to her

&039;There&039;s another murderer Maybe an army of murderers Under the orders of someone older even than an elder vahastly Believe me, I&039;ve met her You wouldn&039;t like her&039;

Penelope looked at the blood trail Her eyes reddened slightly

&039;Isn&039;t this a bit convenient?&039;

Kate didn&039;t understand

&039;It&039;s as if arroere drawn on the road We&039;re being pulled by the nose, toward the Colosseuer&039;

&039;The French person?&039;

Kate reht the enrief at Charles&039;s death While Kate was off being mad with Marcello, Genevieve and Penelope had made up, hadn&039;t they?

Penelope made a decision &039;Very well, Katie, I&039;ll co decidedly off about this Do you see? So at this Aston Martin Can you smell that? Not the blood, the cordite&039;

Charles would have looked at the road and been able to tell from smeared footprints whether Genevieve had been alone, whether she was pursuing or being pursued, and at what speed It was a trick he had learned froht The trail was too obvious But they had no choice

&039;Co off

The ancient stands of the Colosseu stone pillars between her and thealong the rows, settling down for the spectacle She wondered how aenerally held at the expense of the Eift to the people of Rome Give them bread and circuses

Bond was down here in the labyrinth, but she couldn&039;t count on hione over to the Enemy Not Brastov&039;s side, but someone else old and powerful, the Mother of Tears

She took off her shoes and walked on the points of her feet, darting swiftly between pillars as if they were trees in a forest Her fangs and claere out, though she feared they&039;d be outclassed by silver swords and hardwood spears

It was disturbing that she had only glimpsed the Crimson Executioner twice, as flashes of red He was a warm man She should be able to scent hi She was the huntress of the night, the elder vampire, the survivor of centuries She should be the favourite

Yet the Executioner had killed elders

Anton Voytek and Anibas Vajda had been erous than her, and it hadn&039;t helped them Some of the elders the Crimson Executioner had slain were shape-shifters who could beco white mists Beside those abilities, her poor talons and teeth were feeble

The stands were thinly crowded Were they people, or merely shades? She smelled wars

There was a crack A silver bullet struck stone inches froet Hahty switch was thrown and light burned down

Blinking away tears of shock, Genevieve looked up Banks of arc lights - like those she&039;d seen on the stages at Cinecitta - had been erected along the third tier They ca the arena into awhite spaces

She slipped into a shadow A spotlight trapped her

Blobs of dazzle floated on her eyeballs She was used to daylight, fancied herself immune to it, but this hurt The beams were hazy with dust and sht

The arena was lit up but the stands were in darkness There were eyes out there but she saw no faces Wheeling about, hissing, she looked to the imperial seats Between coluames, a blonde child, one eye obscured by hair It was Kate&039;s apparition, the girl only she - and Bond, Genevieve remembered - claimed to have seen

Genevieve ladiators felt about their Eht and waited for her killers There was no sense in running

The spotlight expanded At its edge stood a pair of red boots As the light grew, it revealed the red tights, trunks and belt, the broad torso naked of all but paint, the balaclava hood and domino mask, the exposed teeth and mad eyes

The Cri and closing A stench assailed her nose and she realised the red stuff on his exposed chest and face was not paint The spoiled blood sickened her

She danced close to hi the splits in the air, one foot-point on the ground, the other stuck up above her head She aimed her foot at the Executioner&039;s Adaer of skin and bone

The kick should have fetched off his head

Instead, he whipped to one side Her toe-claws carved a runnel across his shoulder His hands closed on her ankle and she hipped off balance, up into the air The Cri her like a cat

Her unbound hair brushed a stone pillar On the next pass, her head would be battered against so that had stood for twenty centuries It wouldn&039;t kill her, but it would shatter her skull into a dozen pieces She&039;d live through the next hundred years with a head like a lopsided jack o&039;lantern Provided she lived through the next hundred seconds

The crowd roared and whistled

She let her arle from her face, heels of her hands out to take the force of the blow

The pillar was in the way

She felt the impact in her wrists and elbows Her arh to bloody her nose

The Executioner dropped her

She hugged the pillar and slid down it The blood taste in her ht it This was not an opponent who could be beaten by surrender to the anied bitch vaainst the pillar

The Cri her upright His shining, empty eyes were beacons, close to her face

Out there in the stands, a thousand thumbs turned down This had not been ainst her neck, pinching on her jugular vein Stolen blood pureollen, her brain was starved He could pop off her head like the top of a beer bottle Bastard

She tore at his sides, blunting her nails on blood-greased hide and taut slabs of -teeth elongated, forcing herher lower lip But she couldn&039;t ht air