There was immediate panic. Several of the King's guards surged forward as the Baroness picked up the slack-jawed imitator and flung him at the group. They went down in a pile. The Baroness jumped off the table as a guard made a grab for her. She pivoted and bit deeply into his throat, geysering blood into the air. The Baroness then hoisted him up and tossed him at more guards. At the same time, Max and Jane readied their weapons to fire, but Porter scrambled to her feet and motioned them to stop.
'No!' she yelled. 'You may hit the King by accident!'
Another guard tried to block the creature, but the Baroness grabbed his head, snapped his neck, and the man slid to the floor. The Queen screamed and ran as the King remained with his men, trying to halt the vampire's approach.
The guards were armed with spears, and these were useless. One was thrust through the body of the Baroness, but it was metal and would not stop her. She pulled out the spear and swung it about wildly as she leapt back onto the table.
'Protect the King!' Porter yelled to Jane and Max.
They took up defensive positions as Doctor Porter climbed onto the other end of the table and advanced on the vampire. The Baroness's eyes narrowed, she hissed, and charged. Porter ducked, produced her razor-sharp blade, ducked down and slid past the vampire, severing one of her arms at the same time.
The Baroness hissed and spat like an enraged snake as blood spurted from the jagged stump.
Phut!
The stake that slammed into her chest had come from Eddy's crossbow. He had been waiting for precisely the right moment when it would be safe to shoot the creature. The Baroness took a single, staggering step and toppled off the table.
They gathered around the creature. It was dead, but its transformation was not yet complete. The vampiric fangs receded into its head. The acid, which had burnt its flesh, no longer had any effect as she became human once more. The face changed again, though, as death caught up with her. She had been dead for days. Her face blackened and bloated as decomposition set in.
'Good God!' the King gasped as he witnessed the transformation. 'What devilry is this?'
'The scourge of the vampire,' Doctor Porter replied. She nodded to the man who had masqueraded as Dracula. 'I suggest you hold that man, although he is no threat. He is merely a pawn in Dracula's game.'
'Then where is the real Dracula?' the King demanded.
Porter looked about. 'Where is the Prince of Wales?'
'I told him to join us, but he often ignores me. He may be back in the hall.'
'Quickly!' Doctor Porter said. 'We must find him!'
They raced back to St George's Hall, but before they had even reached it, the sound of an enormous tumult reverberated through the castle. The guards flung open the doors—and bedlam lay beyond.
Dozens of guests were involved in hand-to-hand combat with vampires. People lay on the floor or in their seats, fighting those who had been transformed into the undead. The pianoforte that Jane had played minutes earlier had been overturned and smashed. Dead and dying people lay all around. Blood was everywhere.
Jane understood what must have occurred. The real Dracula, probably masquerading as a servant, entered the palace with the Baroness and his doppelganger. He must have attacked the guests sometime after Jane, and the others were escorted away. Some had been transformed into vampires, while others had been immediately killed.
Doctor Porter turned back to the soldiers. 'Vampires can only be killed by beheading or a wooden stake to the heart! Nothing else will work!'
Jane and the others led the charge. She started shooting at anything with fangs. One launched itself at her, and Jane parried it away, swung her blade, and removed its head. Another threw itself upon her, snarling and biting, but this one she dispatched with a stake. Jane spotted Eddy struggling with a creature. She fired a shot to the back of its head before slamming a stake into its heart from behind.
'Thank you, Miss Austen,' Eddy said.
'My pleasure, Eddy.'
She turned her attention to the crowd. The addition of the King's guards, with their newfound knowledge of how to dispatch the creatures, had changed the battle. There were still pockets of resistance, however, and she saw a band of creatures fighting Max and the doctor.
Jane pushed through to them, slipping on the bloody floor as she went. Drawing out her blade, she stabbed a vampire through the throat as it desperately tried to bite Max.
'Thanks!' he grunted, jamming a stake into the creature. 'You're a warrior at heart.'
'I'm a writer at heart, but I'll happily accept the compliment.'
Within seconds, the last of the creatures were dead. A strange silence settled over the room after the mayhem of the battle. Dead and injured people lay all about. The floor was slick with blood. Seats had been overturned. Severed heads lay about like balls on a sporting field.
The King waded through the massacre. 'The Prince of Wales,' he called. 'Have you seen him?'
No one knew his whereabouts, but one man said he'd spotted him leaving with a tall, dark stranger in the direction of the quadrangle. The King assembled a group of guards. Jane and the others joined them as they snatched up lanterns and went outside. Another man was quizzed, who said the pair had been heading towards Windsor Forest, adjoining the grounds.
'Quickly!' the King urged.
They went charging into the darkened woods beyond the castle. Soft snow had begun to fall, throwing a white blanket across the acres of forest. Jane and the others peered into the darkness. It was almost impossible to see anything.
Doctor Porter let out a cry. 'There!' she said, pointing. 'A light!'
The anaemic glow of a lantern flickered in the distance. The group charged across the open grounds. Only half the distance had been covered when Jane was able to make out what lay near the light. A man with dark hair and pale skin was stooped over the body of the Prince. The predatory figure looked up, spotted them, and scurried away into the darkness.
They reached the King's son. His neck had been bitten, but he was still alive.
'You must hold him in his room,' Porter told the King. 'Do not let him leave his chambers. The effect of the vampire will wear off, but he must not be bitten again. To do so will endanger our nation.'
'We will do as you say.'
He and several of the guards started back to the castle. Others stayed with Jane and her group to continue the hunt for Dracula.
'He can't have gone too far,' Doctor Porter said. 'Raise the alarm if you spot him.'
They spread out. Jane stalked through the darkness with her lantern raised, her gun ready to fire. Shadows loomed and recoiled about the forest as she moved the light about.
He's gone, Jane thought. And there goes our best chance of finding him.
A sound came from behind her. She pivoted—and found herself face-to-face with Dracula.
'You should come with me,' he said.
And to Jane, this now seemed the most sensible thing in the world.