Free My Immortal The Vampires of Berlin by Lee Rudnicki Page A

would wake them. In desperation, he took a bullet from his belt and threw it. His first throw missed and rolled into the gutter
.
His aim was better with the second; it bounced off of a helmet and hit Boris right on the nose.
    Boris swatted at the air and opened his eye. The one-eyed soldier was wide-awake the instant that he saw the look on Ruslan’s face. It told him everything he needed to know—they found the sons-of-bitches who had annihilated his patrol. Boris jumped to his feet and kicked his men awake. Revenge would not wait for first light. It was time to fight.
    A few minutes later, the soldiers quietly pushed the truck-mounted
Katyusha
into the street in front of the Hotel Neptune. Boris almost had a heart attack when a new conscript sneezed. He would have shot him right then and there if it could have made their chance of detection any lower. They cringed and spent the next thirty seconds waiting for the machine gun burst. When that didn’t happen, the men breathed a sigh of relief and maneuvered the rocket launcher into position.
    The battle plan, as Boris had explained it, was simple. Step 1. Launch the
Katyusha
point blank at the Hotel Neptune. Step 2. Go inside and kill any of those rat fucks that survived the blast.
    The men worked quickly. Once they got the
Katyusha
in place, they could make it a very bad day for the Germans who were holed up in that little hotel. However, if they got spotted before the
Katyusha
was ready to fire, their odds of survival against an MG-42 were slim to none. After all, they were breaking the time-honored Rule #1 of Soviet Red Army street-fighting doctrine—get the hell out of the street.

23

Blindness

    Things went downhill fast for Wolf and Sebastian. With three drunk and crazy armed SS soldiers on the loose, the Hotel Neptune had become just as dangerous for them as Berlin Cathedral. Only this time, the threat was from within.
    Pig Face was done waiting. He pointed his bayonet at Eva. “Before we leave, we’re going to send this Slavic bitch out with a bang. Let’s go.”
    Otto the Jackal stood up and unbuttoned his pants. “The party begins...”
    Wolf froze, but Sebastian jumped up in front of Otto with his fists clenched. “Back off Jackal—this is not a goddamn party!” he shouted.
    Otto shoved Sebastian to the floor and Pig Face grabbed Eva. She didn’t resist his advances; she just stared into his eyes. “
They are coming for me
,” she whispered.
    Pig Face laughed loudly and pulled at her nightgown. “So am I, missy, so am I!”
    “Leave her alone!” Sebastian shouted as he landed a desperate right hook that sent Otto reeling backwards. Then he grabbed Pig Face from behind, but the hand-to-hand combat expert threw him over his shoulder and sent him crashing into Eva; she instinctively bit down on his hand when it hit her in the face.
    Sebastian went ballistic when he saw the blood. “Goddamnit!” he yelled. “Stop this shit! Stop it! Right now! We don’t need this!”
    “Screw you,” Pig Face replied, pushing him aside.
    Sebastian pulled out his
Mauser
and pointed it at him. The stakes were suddenly raised and all of his cards were on the table. “Leave her alone, you fucking animal! I’m serious! I told you to stop!”
    Pig Face didn’t flinch. “Go ahead. Shoot me if you got the balls. I’m not afraid to die tonight.”
    “I will shoot you, so help me! “I will kill you!” Sebastian’s hands shook like a leaf—he hadn’t expected defiance in the face of overwhelming force.
    “Then kill me already,” Pig Face replied. “Get it over with. But before you do, there’s one thing you should know.”
    “What?”
    Bang!
Sebastian slumped to the floor, blood flowing from the back of his head.
    “His friends are deadly.” Varik chuckled as the acrid smell of gunpowder permeated the room. He wasn’t keen on killing Germans, but first and foremost, he would protect his men. He didn’t regret taking the shot.
    “
Auf Wiedersehen,