Supernatural Fresh Meat

FORTY-SIX




Sam shifted sideways on the cliff face, finding a handhold to his left. He dug in with the ice axe, making sure his grip was firm before moving his feet to another section of the tiny lip he perched on. If it weren’t for the axe, Sam had no doubt his hold would rip free of the cliff and he’d plummet to his death, taking Bobby with him.

Below, Bobby hung on the rope, no longer swinging now, but too far out to grab the rock wall himself. He was dead weight, pulling heavily on Sam.

“I can’t get close enough to the rock!” Bobby yelled up. “Do you have a good enough grip for me to swing toward it?”

Sam felt the narrow little lip that his left hand clung to pathetically. He’d crammed his toes into little holes in the rock, but not more than an inch or two. The weight pulling on him made it hard to talk.

“I don’t think so, Bobby. Don’t try it!” he yelled down.

The vampires had moved to a ledge just up and to the right of Sam. The female drew closer, as the male lowered her down. She kicked out, landing a blow right in Sam’s face. Pain exploded in his nose, stars erupting across his field of vision.

She kicked out again, this time trying to dislodge the ice axe. Her boot landed solidly on the handle where Sam gripped it, and he felt it shift a little. A rain of pebbles cascaded down from where he’d driven it into the rock. She kicked it again, and Sam searched to his left for another place to move to. He found a hole about two feet away, pushed his fingers into the tiny crevice, then felt around with his feet for another perch. She kicked the axe again, and this time it moved outward so quickly that Sam’s heart pounded in his chest. As it slipped out of the crevice, he swung it up and to his left. The toothed end drove into a crack in the rock, but it wasn’t enough to hold Sam’s weight. He strained against the incredible downward force of the rope.

His searching left foot found a tiny lip of rock and stepped over to it while his left hand gripped the tiny crevice with everything in him. Only his fingers and sheer will held him to the cliff face. He felt like his grip would slip off as he swung the axe out again, this time finding a bigger crevice to sink into. He felt the axe catch and shuffled his right foot closer to his left.

Now he was just out of reach of the vampires on the ledge to his upper right. His hold felt a little more secure.

“Okay, Bobby. Swing!” he shouted.

He prepared himself for the movement, his heart racing, then he felt Bobby start to move back and forth, building up momentum.

When he looked down, he saw the challenge facing his old friend. Up near the top, where Sam clung, the rock face was littered with holes, albeit tiny, to cram fingers and toes in, but where Bobby hung was only smooth granite, weathered away by a glacier in the distant past.

The vampires moved up the cliff face, returning to the top, and started searching for another way down. Bobby swung heavily on the rope below, and Sam felt the weight jerk as he hit the cliff face.

“God damn it!” Bobby cursed, his grasping hands not finding anything to hang onto.

He swung out again, fingers and feet scraping along the granite for any hint of a crevice. Sam gritted his teeth against the weight, feeling his left fingers start to slip. He couldn’t readjust with Bobby swinging like a pendulum below him. It would tear them right off the rock. He had to hang tight, hope that Bobby could grab hold of something.

Bobby swung back and forth three more times, each time colliding with the rock and not finding purchase.

“I have to adjust,” Sam called down, straining against the pull of the rope.

Bobby slowed the swinging, and when Sam felt the back-and-forth reduce to a straight-down weight, he readjusted his fingers in the little crevice.

Small rocks rained down on his face, and he looked up to see Black Overcoat lowering his partner over a sheer section of rock. In another second, she’d be in range to kick Sam squarely in the face again, knocking him clear off the rock face.