Outside Hell (23 page)

To look at him at just over 6ft tall, his
shoulder length hair was dark and apart from being in perfect
condition, it also applied a frame to his strikingly handsome
features. His eyes were dark too and his jawline subtle and
typically Teutonic in the way that it curved towards his blood red
lips and shiny white teeth.

Laouse had on a pair of black shoes and grey
trousers that had a perfect crease running down the front. On his
upper half and covering his muscular frame, he was wearing a
full-length white lab coat with a yellow HB pencil sticking up out
of his breast pocket.

The weather in the valley outside as he’d
smiled at his visitor waiting to be let in, was freezing cold and
the sky was vibrantly clear as it washed downwards with a surreal
glow from the heavens above.

Standing there some ten paces outside, and
blocking a huge amount of the view in front of him, stood the
Bavarian monster Claudius.

They’d met briefly in Paris at the Palace de
Versailles a couple of days previously. Laouse had seen Claudius
approaching the vampire Heir Volkerdauphine as he’d spoken on stage
in the Hall of Mirrors, moments after the mini Phantom of the Opera
ball had finished.

Claudius had been furious with Heir
Volkerdauphine in front of hundreds of vampires, because he’d
forgotten to mention about a finger that had been found frozen
inside a parcel out in Romania.

It was discovered at one of the sites where
not only vampires had gone missing from, but also Claudius’ son
too. The Bavarian monster standing eight feet tall as he’d stormed
up to the stage dressed in fur skins, had insinuated that Heir
Volkerdauphine had not forgotton to mention it but done so on
purpose. The crowds had all seen Heir Volkerdauphines face drop
fifty shades whiter and after stuttering like his batteries in his
mouth were failing, it had seemed as if maybe Claudius’ accusations
might have been valid too.

The finger had been Heir Volkerdauphine’s
mothers finger.

Adolph had brutally amputated it to ensure
that Heir Volkerdauphine had kept his word of snitching on the
location of vampire’s hideouts in Romania. A deal that Adolph had
struck with the vampire when he’d been a prisoner of Adolph’s,
after being caught still alive in the gas chambers out in Auswitzch
prisoner of war camp. It was the only way that Heirr Volkerdauphine
could leave the jails, and also in turn then hope that after
helping Adolph’s soldiers catch hundreds of vampires for
experiments, that he could ever see his mother released too. That
is if Adolph had kept to his word, but the German leader had never
intended on releasing the mother, regardless of how many vampires
Heir Volkerdauphine had helped his soldiers catch for experiments.
Adolph for obvious reasons never told Heir Volkerdauphine that part
though. Heirr Volkerdaupine had spent many years extremely sad
because he was killing his own kind, and also because of it he had
no one that he could turn to either. Then as a preventative measure
so that he didn’t know the location of the secret hanger, when
they’d released him from the cells he’d been blindfolded just in
case he’d ever tried to stage a massive raid on the place, trying
to rescue his mother.

Back in the secret lab and after receiving a
worrying phone call from Claudius, Laouse had invited him to come
there to discuss everything in greater detail. Claudius had
accepted Laouses offer, and then owing to the extreme gravity of
the situation regarding vampires being kidnapped and also his son’s
own whereabouts being unknown, he’d left for the lab
immediately.

Laouse and Claudius had shaken hands, and
then as they’d gone inside the concrete tunnel and to block out the
outside world, Laouse had closed the heavy metal door behind
them.

The steel door on the outside was disguised
with bushes and painted a rock color to aide in the labs
secrecy.

Once they’d entered the lab and walked past
the rows of metal tables that had various bits of equipment and
microscopes spread out across them, and after passing the rifle
room where the Austrian tested materials for being bulletproof,
they’d entered Laouse’s office.

Laouse poured out two glasses of water and
then after offering a seat to Claudius, he taken his own seat
opposite him.

The office with its cream carpet and dark
teak desk that was directly in front of the doorway; was lined with
aluminum strips from floor to ceiling and glass panels between
them, that looked out into the labs on the other side.

Then as soon as Claudius had taken a sip of
the refreshing water from the reservoir above, the giant vampire
had rested his massive hands on the tabletop, and then began to
explain everything in greater detail.

Lause sat there in his chair and listened to
the horrible news that confirmed his suspicions regarding Heir
Volkerdauphine, and those of Kaine and Regina too.

Claudius started by saying that after he’d
stormed up to the stage in Paris, and then moments after addressing
the crowds, Heir Volkerdauphine had slunk away and disappeared.

Laouse nodded as he’d remembered the
scene.

Claudius then told him that he’d tried to
find Heir Volkerdauphine, but everywhere he’d turned the vampire
was nowhere to be seen.

Claudius said that he’d then taken his search
out of the Hall of Mirrors room and gone outside the palaces main
entrance. He said that as stepped down of the main steps between
the concrete columns into the shingle, a security guard had seen
him looking for someone and stepped out from the shadows asking him
if he’d needed help. Claudius had told the guard that he was
looking for Heir Volkerdauphine. The guard had replied that he
hadn’t seen him since earlier on in the evening when he was talking
to a human over by the pine trees. Claudius said to Laouse that
he’d remembered looking across to where the guard was pointing and
couldn’t believe that he was right, because the pine trees were
some way away across the wet grass.

The guard had assured him that he’d seen Heir
Volkerdauphine with this human, and then described the man as being
about six feet tall with a stern face and dressed in black. He’d
said that the clothes he was wearing looked like they were military
and that he’d been wearing black boots too.

The guard had also said that he’d seen them
shake hands but that Heir Volkerdauphine had slowly raised his and
hadn’t looked too happy. The man had then surreptitiously sneaked
back through the rows of pine trees and when followed he’d snuck
out the side gate. Then he’d crossed the busy street and climbed in
a black Range Rover with another black Range Rover parked behind.
He’d said that the vehicles were full of men all with similarly
stern expressions.

They’d then run the plates straight away but
they were coming back as unlisted on the police database.

Claudius had thanked him for the information
and then slipped the guard his business card and asked him that
should he see Heir Volkerdauphine again, would he call him. The
guard had assured him that he would and then they’d parted.

Claudius not long afterwards as he was going
back up the main steps, then saw something out of the corner of his
eye and went to investigate.

As he’d walked over to look near Laouse’s
chopper some forty feet away, suddenly he’d heard crowds running
down the steps behind him with great urgency. Turning around and
forgetting what he was looking for, he’d been taken back by
everyone screaming about a portal demon being inside.

A moment later Claudius had said that he’d
seen his wife and his friends charge outside too, and then as
they’d jumped into his jeep, and not wishing to find out if the
portal demon was true, they’d fast tracked out of there.

The next day he’d received a phone call on
his office line and it had been the vampire security guard that
he’d given his card to. The vampires voice was etched with anger
and also concern too. The guard had said that when they’d gone down
to the security hut next the palaces Golden Gates, the two security
guards that should have been there, had vanished. He’d said that
one of them was his friend so he’d thought it strange and started
looking around for him. Then after looking down into the gravel and
seeing blood glistening in the stones from the street lamp just
rearing its head above the twenty feet high wall, he’d run inside
the hut and played back the video camera. The hidden camera up in
the pine trees opposite the hut had caught a black transit van that
came in, and then after the two occupants had spoken to his friend
and the other security guard, the occupants of the van had fired
tasselly like darts into them.

The guard has said in a worried voice that he
couldn’t believe what he was seeing on the TV screen as he’d
looked, and that even though the picture in black and white wasn’t
that great as it played back, he’d seen his friend collapse into
the gravel. The other guard had collapsed too but then a moment
later they’d managed to get back up quite groggily and attack and
kill the men in the van.

The guard had also said that moments later
the two black Range Rovers from outside had come screeching into
the entrance and the men that were now also wearing ski masks,
jumped out of the vehicles and shot his friend and the other guard
with more tasselly things.

Then after collapsing and not getting up, the
men threw them in the back of the transit and two of them put their
jackets on and remained by the hut posing as guards, whilst the van
and the Range Rovers disappeared back out into the street.

Claudius asked the guard if there was
anything he could remember about the Range Rovers but the guard had
said that according to the cameras, later they’d come back into the
palace grounds shooting at Kaine and Regina’s Mustang but then
never left the place.

Laouse remembered being in the Mustang
himself and hadn’t seen who was shooting at them from the gates as
Regina was driving, but hearing Claudius saying this, he’d told
Claudius that now he was starting to piece things together and that
the news was very worrying indeed.

Claudius said that he didn’t know that Laouse
was in the car too, and the Austrian nodded.

The Bavarian monster looked across the desk
at Laouse and furrowed his brow. Then he said that there was
something else too.

He’d said that the guard saw on the TV screen
that the palace was on fire too, and then Laouse interrupted him
briefly and confirmed it.

Laouse said that he was inside the Hall of
mirrors with Kaine and Regina and Satan who was burning up the
place after everyone left screaming about the portal demon. He’d
said that they’d only managed to escape because Dracus had turned
up and shot Satan in the neck with four of his cursed arrows. Then
as the prince of darkness was struggling to resist the powers
trying to paralyse him, that they’d escaped the room by using one
of the bowman’s magic portals.

Laouse had said that the portal that they
were trying to escape through hadn’t worked though, and that it had
only taken them outside the room and then dumped then in the
shingle by the palaces main steps. He’d said that the bowman said
afterwards in the Mustang that Satan had sucked its energy back
towards him, and stopped them from leaving whilst the palace was
roaring in flames.

Claudius having it now confirmed by Laouse
that after he’d left with his wife that the palace was actually in
flames, he’d instantly had a deeply confused expression blast
across his face. Then as he’d rubbed his thick black wiry beard, a
moment later he’d said to Laouse, “Hmmm I see, then maybe the guard
was telling the truth.”

Laouse wondered what he’d meant by that and
asked him to explain.

Claudius said that when the security guard on
the phone had told him about the flames that he’d already left the
place, but to hear that the beautiful palace was destroyed it had
caused him to be quite angry. Then when the guard a second later
had said that even though everyone and the security was running for
their lives to escape the portal demon, he’d actually gone back up
the pathway to the palace and found that it wasn’t on fire at
all.

Laouse looked across his desk at Claudius and
remembered the reason why too. The angel Adbiel had come down from
Heaven holding his gleaming chain and a key to the bottomless pit.
Satan had taken one look at it and then fled back into Hell.

Laouse, Kaine and Regina had been hiding in
the bushes and seen the angel as he’d appeared in a garish bright
flash of light. The angel had past his hand across the sky in front
of himself and with it, suddenly the flames had instantly
disappeared and the palace was undamaged and returned to its former
glory.

He told Claudius and the big vampire just
looked back at him dumbfounded and completely baffled.

“An angel you say?” Claudius remarked in his
massively deep and gruff outback voice.

Laouse nodded as then suddenly he threw his
chair back and stood up.

A second later as rage swept then across the
Austrian vampires face, suddenly he brought his arms down in his
white lab coat, and smashed the office table in front of him,
completely in half.

His unfinished cup of water and his phone
plus paperwork and in and out tray scattered everywhere.