Every muscle in Kaylee's body was tensed to the breaking point. With all her strength, she leaned against the invisible restraints that had been gently wrapped around her body. But not a finger could move. Kaylee stared at the two creatures with wide eyes, like a fly in a spider's web, caught between agony and acceptance of the inevitable.

She just stood there.

Motionless.

Powerless.

Panic smouldered inside her like a balloon.

Like two cats, the two creatures of the night strode towards her, each step carefully placed, unhurried, as if they had all the time in the world. Kaylee could hear from the sound of their words and pronunciation that they were mocking her, even without being able to understand the strange language.

She was nothing but prey.

A small, insignificant human being.

This contempt was almost more offensive to Kaylee than her overflowing fear. Their flirtatious laughter sounded false and distorted. But as soon as disgust flared at the two beings, they opened their lips again, sweet and beguiling words dispelled all forms of aversion and aggression.

Kaylee's mind lost the battle more and more with every word the two creatures uttered. Something deep inside her just wanted to give up, close her eyes, and listen to this sugary melody of strange words. Her body was hot and cold at the same time, and she felt a burning desire to simply surrender to the two creatures—no matter what they wanted to do to her.

The magician felt her power over her body slipping further and further away with every whisper that passed over the lips of the intoxicatingly beautiful women.

The fingers of her left hand loosened, and the walking stick fell to the floor with an audible clatter.

At that moment, it was as if a cool autumn wind pushed the voices aside. Kaylee heard the rustling of leaves and the cracking of twigs. Then, a familiar voice, deep, deep in her mind.

RUN, LITTLE WOLF! IF YOU DON'T RUN, THEY'LL DEVOUR YOU!

The sound of the voice poured over her mind like ice-cold water. She tore the net that had wrapped itself around the mage and pulled aside the beguiling, mind-numbing veil, and it was as if a rock had fallen from Kaylee's chest, finally allowing her to breathe again. It happened so suddenly that the mage staggered back like something had hit her chest. Panting and breathing heavily, Kaylee braced herself against the wall for a moment.

The two creatures had not failed to notice that their spell on Kaylee had been broken. As a result, they looked at each other in confusion.

STUPID THING! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

Kaylee raised the revolver and pulled the trigger. But the creatures dodged with lightning speed.

A shot drilled into the door's frame, and the bang echoed throughout the hallway.

Wood splintered, and the second shot hit the dark-haired creature in the shoulder. Within milliseconds, the bullet burrowed through heavy fabric into her pale skin. The impact jerked her arm back briefly. But then, all it did was let out a derisive, shrieking laugh.

Kaylee went chalky white around the tip of her nose.

The bullets had no effect.

'Of course not, you idiot,' she hissed at herself in her mind. 'Since when can you just shoot the undead?'

"Crowford!" the familiar voice of Doctor Archer suddenly sounded behind her. Then, another shot thundered through the corridor.

The bullet whizzed unerringly past Kaylee's head and hit the brown-haired one of the two creatures - without having any real impact on her. There wasn't even any blood flowing from the fresh bullet wound.

In a flash, Kaylee grabbed the dropped walking stick and went around.

"Holy bullets, doctor! We need holy bullets!" Kaylee shouted, half commanding, half pleading. Adrenaline flooded their bodies, and Kaylee ran as fast as her legs could, carrying her down the corridor towards the doctor. She could see the muzzle flash as he fired another shot at her pursuers.

"Where the hell am I supposed to get blessed bullets from now!" Ben yelled in a severe voice.

"The holy water!" Kaylee almost shouted at Doctor Archer. As a Seeker, how could he not come up with this idea in such a situation? Jesus, how had he survived the war? "Use the damn holy water!"

"What holy water, for heaven's sake? Do you think I carry something like that around in my pants pocket?"

Kaylee moaned deeply, gasped with physical exertion and then tugged at her shoulder bag with unsteady hands. Flipping it open, she reached inside and threw a small crystal vial at Benjamin with all her might.

Behind her, Kaylee could hear the two beasts' wild screeching. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a movement on the wall, then one on the ceiling.

Damn it, this couldn't be happening! The creatures were climbing along the walls like lizards!

Ben's eyes widened in sheer horror at the sight, as if they didn't give a damn about gravity!

One of the creatures leapt towards Kaylee, ready to hurl itself at the young woman - then another orb smashed the beast aside and against the wall.

"Come on, Crowford! Hurry up!" Ben shouted, then turned his gaze briefly over his shoulder. "Stay in the room, Miss Clarence!"

That made Millicent Clarence back even further away from the door. Her face showed the prevailing fear in her all too clearly. She wanted to flee, to run away and not turn back. But where and where to? The room was tiny, and there was no escape.

Meanwhile, Kaylee staggered forward. Her lungs were burning. Her chest was tight, and if she could have spared the capacity for a dissenting thought at that moment, she would have cursed Benjamin Archer for being right in his warning about sprinting with the bandages around her chest.

"Damn it, Doctor, just shoot!" Kaylee croaked hoarsely.

Just then, one of the two female creatures started to jump and pulled her off her feet. It squeezed all the air out of her lungs as Kaylee hit the ground hard. The blonde's long fingers dug painfully into her shoulder, and Kaylee screamed.

With a quick flick of the wrist, Benjamin Archer snapped open the cartridge drum of his revolver and hastily poured the contents of the bottle that had been thrown at him over the bullets inside.

Holy water splashed onto his skin and soaked his sleeve. With a quick, practised grip of his right hand, he pushed the drum back into the cylinder with a click and levelled the weapon.

He took a deep breath, took aim and concentrated.

The amulet under his shirt seemed to pulse, almost as if it were trying to imitate the rhythm of his heartbeat.

His breathing was calm.

His hand even calmer.

A distant whisper rose like the rustling of sand, and for a brief moment, Benjamin Archer was silent.

His sights were locked on his target.

"BEJAMIN!" Kaylee yelled in agony, trying to somehow hold the beast away from her with the walking stick. Bared teeth snapped at her like a wild animal; the creature pinned her to the ground and squeezed the air out of her body like a bellows.

Her left hand trembled with pain and strain as the dark mark and unhealed wound pulsed hotly. It felt as if salt was being rubbed into it. The creature above her was inhumanly strong. Under different circumstances and with a little more time, it would undoubtedly have crushed her torso and burst it like an overripe fruit. But it never came to that...

It was only a tiny second, a fraction of an instant, but it dragged on for Ben as if a grain had been caught in the opening of an hourglass.

Then, he felt a shift in the air.

The chill that had prevailed in the sanatorium's corridors was suddenly gone, giving way first to gentle warmth and then to oppressive heat.

Ben closed his eyes briefly, feeling the sun of the Egyptian desert on his face and the sand tickling his cheek...

"Anubis, Ahakum ealaa 'aedayiy biquatika"¹, he murmured in the ancient language that he did not know himself but which came naturally to his tongue.

Then he pulled the trigger.

There was a bang, and the bullet whizzed away.

Ben caught the familiar smell of gunpowder in his nose.

This time, a shrill scream echoed through the corridor. Loud and shrill, the blonde undead staggered back, and her face, marked with scorn a moment ago, turned into a savage grimace.

Hissing sounds as if from a branding iron rang out from the fresh bullet wound; the flawless skin cracked and splintered and seemed to age around the injury within seconds. The beauty fell away from it as if a porcelain mask had cracked, revealing the grotesque, inhuman image behind it: high, prominent cheekbones and piercing eyes like those of a bird of prey, quivering nostrils, the long, bony fingers with blood-stained claws.

The second creature let out a furious scream and lunged at Kaylee, who was still crouching on the ground. Claws first, mouth wide open, and fangs bared, it leapt from the ceiling towards its prey.

Kaylee's fingers slid nervously under her coat. There, she felt the familiar wood of her wand and felt the crackling with which the occult artefact reacted. Stretching her other hand forward, the magician spread her index finger and thumb as if aiming a finger gun at her target like a child at play.

כוחות עליונים, אויב שלי, הוא רוצה להשתולל. להעניש אותו, לשבור אותו ולהפיל אותו ²

This time, Kaylee struck up a foreign language. The syllables strung together, forming intricate words with complex vowels and rough sounds. Familiar, as if Kaylee spoke these words daily, they rolled off her tongue, sounding exotic and foreign. She had practised the pronunciation hundreds of times: a complex, powerful magic formula in Hebrew.

All at once, the air billowed in front of her fingers and a dazzling flash of light illuminated the scene as it shot towards the beast. The magical projectile struck the undead in the chest, violently tearing it from its trajectory and hurling it several meters away from the magician.

This was their chance!

While the two beasts writhed in pain and were distracted by the surprising turn in the battle, this gave the Seekers the precious seconds Kaylee needed to cover the last few meters to her comrades.

However, they didn't have much time; both creatures were already pulling themselves back to their feet, their eyes blazing with fury and bloodlust. The seekers had not dealt the two a fatal blow but had driven them into a wild rage.

The black-haired woman pointed one of her long claws at the young mage, then ran her thumb across her throat and spat out black, viscous blood. This gesture could not be misunderstood even by a fool.

The mage wrinkled her nose before Kaylee rushed into the room with Benjamin and slammed the door into the lock with a crash.

¹ Arabic: "Anubis, Ahakum ealaa 'aedayiy biquatika!" - Judge my enemies with your power.

² Hebrew: כוחות עליונים, אויב שלי, הוא רוצה להשתוללל. להעניש אותו, לשבור אותו ולהפיל אותו - Higher powers, my enemy, he wants to rage. Strike him, break him and bring him down.