The Avenger 33 - The Blood Countess Read Online Free PDF Page B

it wasn’t possible that Elizabeth was . . . was a vampire. “The information you have to give me,” he said finally. “When you first arrived in Panazuela, could you remember it all?”
    She nodded. “Yes, then, but in the past few weeks all sorts of information and ideas seem to be slipping away from me. I must be having a breakdown.”
    “That’s not what’s happening,” he assured her. “The Nazis are setting up some sort of contingency plan. They intend to use this country as a place to hide their major war criminals when the war ends. You implied that much to Colonel Heberden. Can you remember anything else?”
    Elizabeth shook her head. “It sounds familiar. I have the feeling I do know all the details of a plan that is something like that. Details given to me before I was smuggled out of occupied Europe. But, Dick, I can’t dredge up one blessed fact. I’m so sorry I had you—”
    The Avenger was on his feet, facing the half-crumbled entry of the temple.
    “What is it?” the girl asked.
    “Stay out here.” He sprinted to the entryway. From inside the temple he’d heard the unmistakable sound of a foot scraping on stone. Someone was inside the place.
    “What’s a matter?” hollered Weiner as he started up the temple stairs.
    The Avenger’s .22 was in his hand when he entered the temple.
    The light was slanting down in stripes across the humid dark. Part of the temple roof still held, and the sunlight, filtered through foliage, only got through here and there. The floor was made of large slabs of stone, moss thrusting up between the joinings.
    Across the vast room stood a high stone altar. A slice of light touched it, showing the stains of blood shed centuries ago.
    Slowly Benson walked toward the altar.
    “Something funny going on in here?” Weiner called from the doorway.
    “Stay with the girl,” the Avenger told him without turning.
    He stopped in front of the altar, listening . . . then suddenly vaulted over it.
    There was no one on the other side.
    No one else in the temple at all, as a careful search soon revealed.
    Yet the Avenger knew he’d heard someone.
    And that someone might hold the key to what was happening to Elizabeth.
    The Avenger had to find that someone.

CHAPTER X

The Walker in the Dark
    An overcast night, no moon showing. There was a restless feeling in the dark forest that surrounded the Pedra Negra castle; the animals and birds seemed reluctant to settle down. Anticipating something, afraid of something, perhaps. As the Avenger moved soundlessly through the darkness, not a snapped twig or a crackled leaf betrayed his passing. His car he’d left over a mile from here.
    Even though Colonel Heberden had assured him Elizabeth was being adequately guarded, he wanted to see for himself. The girl believed she left the castle after dark, despite the guards. The things she’d told him that afternoon had disturbed him, much more than he’d indicated to her. He gave little credit to what old Dr. Bouchey had told him about Elizabeth Bathory. He did not believe the Blood Countess was still alive after centuries. And yet . . .
    Richard Henry Benson had encountered a good many odd things in his career. Since he’d founded Justice, Inc., he’d seen dead men walk, and he’d fought against werewolves. He was not going to dismiss the possibility that a vampire was roaming the countryside around Mostarda.
    But that vampire could not be Elizabeth Bentin.
    He’d seen Leonard Rodney’s body. The man had been nearly strangled, then something had attacked his throat. A good deal of blood had been lost, and only a little of it remained at the place where Rodney’d been found. An animal could have ripped his flesh like that, but human hands had first tightened around the late consul’s throat.
    The idea that Elizabeth could have done something like that . . . No, he couldn’t accept that at all. The Avenger was far from being a sentimental man; the fact that he’d been in love with