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procedure that was instantaneous and had him scurrying along the filthy
gutter, closing in on Vallin because even if the other saw him there were
numerous rats feeding here brazenly on the stinking garbage. In human form his
quarry's suspicions might be aroused for they were both in their astral bodies
whereas on those occasions when Sabat visited the living in this dimension
there was no chance of being spotted for he was invisible at all times.
Suddenly Pierre Vallin stopped and for a moment was framed in the lighted
doorway of a timbered house. He stepped inside and the door was closed again.
Sabat saw and memorised the exterior of the building, knew that he would be
able to find it again. He could have returned straightaway to his physical
body but his curiosity was getting the better of him. He had found the man he
was looking for, the house where surely Catriona was hiding, yet now he had
the opportunity to witness that evil deed of which he had read, an obscure
myth that was rapidly becoming a truth on the astral plane. Before this night
was done Pierre Vallin would give his baby daughter to the devil in female
form, one who could be none other than Lilith, the vampire; Lilith the
succubus.
And even as Sabat hesitated on that garbage strewn step his rodent eyes picked
up the shrill sound of a baby crying. He knew then that there was no going
back until he had seen this whole business through.
Once more he changed his shape, the huge rat shrinking in size, sprouting
ragged wings that fluttered and had him airborne, a tiny body flitting from
window to window and then the night moth passed through into the house.
The interior was stuffy, dominated by a pungent smell of rotting food,
vegetables heaped in a corner of the downstairs room, the floor thick with
filth. A cockroach on the table eyed Sabat quizzically as he bobbed
erratically against the ceiling and then passed through to the upper storey.
As below, the upstairs consisted of just a single room. And even as Sabat went
into it he experienced a sensation of retching, wanting to vomit at the vile
stench of putrefaction, the grimy-heap of crumpled blankets that served as
Vallin's bed, rank with sweat and urine; the wooden box with infant
bedclothing that was no more savoury, a makeshift cradle in the midst of which
lay a baby girl only a few months old.
Crying because her wasting body demanded food, the skin a mass of rashes where
she had laid in her own excreta. Sabat fluttered across her, stared down at
the tiny features, harsh for one so young and innocent, a miniature replica of
Vallin, yet another link in the evil line which stretched across centuries
until it materialised into the living shape of Vince Lealan \
Sabat saw that and much more, a macabre setting that had him longing for the
sanity of his physical body. For there was no doubt whatsoever that Pierre
Vallin was an accomplished magician, one who delved into the lowest depths of
the black arts. The evidence was there in abundance; an altar draped with
black cloth, an inverted crucifix, the upside down crudely carved figure of
Christ violated to the extremities of blasphemy, daubed with dried blood which
Sabat had no doubt was human! Bones and decomposing animal and bird corpses
piled on a tray, a rat that still wriggled, suspended by a thread whilst its
blood dripped steadily into a black goblet; the drink of the damned. Sabat
overcame' his revulsion with the calculated realism of one who accepted such
things, had seen them many times before in the dark corners of the globe.
Yet he tensed and thrilled to the knowledge that he had found this place, a
wizard's hovel to which surely Lilith would come, for the jar of pickled
foreskins on the crude table denoted that this follower of the Left Hand Path
was a familiar with succubi, tasty morsels in readiness to offer these vampire
seductresses when they visited him.
Finally he turned his attention to the man he had followed here, Pierre
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Vallin. Vallin had exchanged his gaudy street clothing for long flowing black
robes, his eyes bright with fanatical anticipation. Stooping because the
ceiling was low, his face seeming to have aged decades with the change of [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]