My Immortal The Vampires of Berlin by Lee Rudnicki Page B

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

Sympathy for the Devil

    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.