Sophie Morgan (Book 1): Relative Strangers (A Modern Vampire Story) (7 page)

"Out there?" he asked, gesturing towards the door. "Are you for real? There’s no way I’m letting you out there."

"Yes, Mickey," I replied with all the resolve I could muster, "I’m going to find out what happened to me, even if I get myself killed in the process, and I’m banking on you to make sure that doesn’t happen."

"Okay". He nodded his head, embedding the prospect in his brain.

Mickey stood up and for the first time I realised how tall he was, or perhaps how short I was. There was a foot in height between us. He extended a lean, slender arm and pulled me up by my hand. We stood head to shoulder staring at the door to the outside world.

"Let’s feckin' do this".

Thankfully, most of the pubs and bars had closed their doors for the evening and we were able to walk through the cobbled lanes undetected and without interruption. We tried to look as inconspicuous as possible as we walked in the direction that my attacker had escaped, but my chest was pounding and every hair on my body was on end. Mickey's eyes scanned each dark corner frantically, his hand on the mole wrench he'd placed in his back pocket. My weapon was hidden more discretely - a ball hammer, tucked into the sleeve of my jacket. Maggie's toolbox had proved quite a resource.

We eventually came to halt when the narrow street expanded into a cobbled square. It was empty except for the litter strewn in the doorways of the empty buildings which surrounded it, and there was no street lighting. It was difficult to believe that such a run-down part of the city could be so close to the high-end boutiques and tourist attractions. The only exits were the side street we had walked down and an access road at the far side, just about wide enough to let one vehicle though.

"He’s gone, "Mickey observed.

"It’s okay Mickey. At least that probably means that he isn’t dead. That’s a good thing, right?" I wanted to add
unless it’s a vampire of course and that means it’s still running around with the ability to come back and kill us or someone else.

Given the events of the previous few hours, I don’t know why I felt so surprised when a figure, cloaked in darkness, lurched out of nowhere and threw itself at Mickey. It took a few seconds for me to register what was going on.

The space he leapt from was no more than two feet wide, a narrow alley separating two buildings. At best, one slender person could walk through it without brushing the sides - I don’t know how you’d manage if you were on the large side. He must have been there for a while, watching us, waiting for us perhaps.

Between the lack of street lighting and the speed of the creature's motion, it was difficult to make out what was going on, but I recognised the stealth of movement and the hungry eyes. They did not resemble those of the debonair man who had helped me with Tracy's bag a few hours earlier; they had transformed into those of a wild creature, the pupils so dilated I could hardly see his irises. His face was distorted, gurning, as he attempted to plant his mouth on any part of Mickey’s flesh that was available.

He leapt onto Mickey as nimbly as an athlete, despite clearly being injured and wild from pain. Mickey obviously hadn’t killed him with the earlier blow, but he had definitely caused some damage. The left side of his head was caked in blood like a mask; it had run from a large gash near his temple, over his eye socket and over his cheekbone. I was amazed that he was still up and moving around with an injury like that, but I couldn’t feel sorry for him. This man, this thing, was unquestionably evil. Any doubt as to his humanity was quickly swept away at the sight of my own blood which stained his lips and chin, and by the way he was clawing at my companion, who was not doing very well in his attempt to throw this assailant of his back.

"
Noooo
," I screamed. The creature shot a glare at me; his lips curled back displaying two yellowed fangs. They seemed to appear from nowhere. He hadn’t had them when he was talking to me in the bar. These things would cause damage, they
had
caused damage, and they could kill.

"Get off him!" I yelled. This time the creature ignored me, concentrating all his efforts on trying to bite through Mickey’s T-shirt and into his shoulder.

Whether this thing was out for revenge or taking a pre-emptive strike to defend itself, it was definitely determined to take Mickey down. Its legs were gripped around Mickey’s waist and one arm was wrapped around his neck in a choke hold. With his other hand, he pulled at Mickey’s hair, trying to pull his head back. I didn’t know if it was to expose his neck, scalp him or attempt to snap his head off altogether.

Mickey was valiantly trying to defend himself, but wasn’t having much success. His arms were pinned to his sides by the creature’s thighs, and though he struggled to manoeuvre his right hand into his pocket to get the wrench, he was failing miserably. It would only take a few minutes for the creature to either break his neck or cause an injury so severe that Mickey would bleed out completely.

My first instinct was to jump on the vampire's back and try to peel him off Mickey, who was now hunched over and desperately attempting to throw the creature off him by rocking side to side. It wouldn’t take much for me to leap onto them, and perhaps if I grabbed onto the creature I could get a grip onto his clothes and either pull him off completely or create enough space for Mickey to wriggle. Maybe give him the opportunity to get the wrench and take a swing at the creature.

But I also worried that if I added my own weight into the mix, we would all tumble to the ground, where we would be more vulnerable. Alternatively, the addition of my extra weight could just snap Mickey in two. I had no idea how much this thing actually weighed, but my additional 140 pounds could be just enough to tip the balance and crush Mickey completely. I’d need a better plan.

Remembering that I had the hammer tucked up my sleeve, I relaxed my grip on its head which sat cradled in my hand. The wooden handle slid down the sleeve of my jacket, falling gently into my curled fingers. Tightening my grip around the handle, I swung it with every bit of strength I could muster and brought it down hard onto my target. Given the speed with which they were moving and the lack of light, I was surprised at how good my aim was.

I heard a crack as the head of the hammer met the back of the creature’s head. Bile and vomit automatically shot up from my stomach, but I forced it down, ignoring the burning sensation as I swallowed it. Pieces of bone and tissue stuck to the metal claw as I brought the hammer down for another hit. The creature’s skull cracked like a soft boiled egg.

The creature relaxed his grip and dropped his legs to the ground; Mickey fell forward onto the cobbled street. As a result. As I instinctively moved towards him, extending a hand to help him to his feet, the creature turned to face me. I was frozen for a moment in my place. I guess I had just hoped that my blows, on top of his existing injuries, would be enough to debilitate the vampire completely. Naive I expect, but let’s be honest, this wasn’t a situation that I was used to. I’d never even been caught up in a pub brawl, let alone fought for my life in the street. My head was reeling. It is one thing to believe in vampires in theory, but quite another to fight one practice.

The vampire turned to face me, then reached around to the back of his head and tentatively fingered the dent in his skull. Bile rushed up into my mouth and I swallowed it back down again.
Oh fuck, fuckity, fuck- fuck, fucker.
Bringing his hand back to its face, it inspected the fragments of tissue and blood that hung from his fingertips, then brought the digits to his lips and licked the sticky residue from them. I wretched again, but there was no time to be distracted.

Mickey struggled back to his feet but was still having difficulty retrieving the wrench from his jeans pocket. He finally managed to yank it free from the pocket it was caught on, but it was too late; the creature turned on his heel to face him. Mickey was exhausted, confused, fighting to stay upright. There was blood on his shirt and somewhere in the mass of bodies I realised the creature must have really injured him at some point during the struggle.

I couldn’t, I wouldn’t, let him kill Mickey. This was entirely my fault, all of it, the handbag, getting attacked, dragging him out there with me. I wasn’t going to let him suffer anymore that he had, suffer from the physical pain of being beat up or the emotional stress of being responsible for someone else’s death
. Someone? This isn’t a someone, this isn’t a person, this is some ‘thing’, something vile.

There was no time to spare; I brought the hammer down and aimed for the creature’s head again, but I wasn’t fast enough. I felt a sudden sharp pain in my arm as if it were going to break. My opponent had been lucky this time; he hadn’t been taken by surprise, but could see my attack coming. He wasn’t going to take it and had grabbed my wrist with a speed and ferocity I wasn’t equipped for.

Looking directly into my eyes, he twisted his grip on my wrist and I was certain I saw the flicker of a smile pass his lips. I was forced to turn my back to him so my arm didn’t break, and then the searing pain arrived as he put all his weight into me and pushed the palm of my hand towards my back, forcing it inwards so it nearly touched the inside of my forearm. The hammer clattered to the ground.

My legs buckled and I dropped to the floor, hitting my knees onto the cobbles and the handle of the hammer. Thankfully, my wrist hadn’t snapped, but the muscles in my arm and shoulder were burning and I couldn’t have turned back to face my attacker without dislocating them. I tried to reach the hammer with my free arm, but it was impossible. Everything hurt and I felt tears form. I was going to die and so was Mickey. At least if I could keep this beast occupied, he wouldn’t be raining the violence down on Mickey. That was something.
Please Mickey, run, just run
.

Maintaining consciousness wasn’t easy, but the longer I stayed alive and lucid, the greater chance of escape Mickey would have.

Then I saw Mickey’s feet, staggering towards us. My movement was severely restricted and I could only make out a few inches above ground level, but I would recognise those scruffy old boots anywhere. He was dragging them across the cobbles with scarcely enough energy to lift them.

"Mickey," I yelled through the tears, "Run".

Whatever happened, it happened quickly - fast enough to take the creature off guard anyway. First of all I heard a tirade of expletives from Mickey, followed by a kind of wet noise, a yelp and then I felt my arm become free and drop back to its natural position. When I was finally able to look up properly, I saw the vampire wrestling with the handle of the mole wrench, trying desperately to pull free the rest of the tool buried firmly in his eye socket. It didn’t take a brain surgeon to figure out what had happened.

While I got to my feet, Mickey finished off the creature by firmly smacking the wrench further into his head with the palm of his hand. That seemed to finally be enough as the thing dropped to the floor.

We stood looking at the body for a little while, half expecting it to get back up. I’ve seen enough horror movies to know that they always come back, and it never makes sense to turn your back on them.

I’d never seen a corpse before, but was confident that they didn’t usually look like that. It was horrible and I wasn’t sure what to feel exactly. There was a massive part of me which felt relief that I was alive, Mickey too of course. But I also felt numb; I didn’t know that I had it in me to hurt another living creature, whatever the circumstance. Mix in the feeling of being genuinely happy to be alive and a mild panic about what to do with the body, and it was a real melting pot of emotion.

"What do we do now?" I eventually managed to ask, breathing heavily through the physical and emotional exhaustion.

"Feck knows. We can’t leave it here. Should we call the police?"

"I don’t know."

"He’s definitely a vampire right?"

"I think so, yes."

Mickey knelt down to inspect the body more fully. It was an awkward movement; he’d pulled muscles in just about every part of his body trying to shake that thing off him. The eyes were still open, admittedly one with the assistance of the mole wrench. He pushed back the vampire's eyelids and took a closer look. I held my breath as he brought his face towards the vampire and inspected it in more detail.

Logic told me that the creature was definitely dead, but this wasn’t an everyday situation; I could visualise the corpse reanimating and grabbing Mickey by his head and taking a chunk out of him. But there was no reanimation, the body stayed dead and completely still.

After inspecting the eyes, Mickey moved his attention to the mouth. He pushed back the lips to reveal the teeth, including the two fangs at the front of the top set.

"Take a look at these", he instructed.

I hesitated for a moment, but eventually crouched down beside him, cringing as he placed his fingers in the creature’s mouth and proceeded to rub them on the gums.

"What is it?" I asked.

"There are two sets of teeth there."

"What?"

He grabbed my hand and delicately placed my fingers into the open mouth, retracing the path his own had taken. He was right, behind the fangs there was a pair of perfectly normal teeth.

Overcoming my distaste, I peeled back the vampire's lips to get a better look. The fangs appeared to protrude from two small bumps of skin, covering the regular dentures beneath. I pushed on one of the mounds and a little discharge of fluid dripped out. It was clear, like saliva.

"Like a shark," I muttered to myself.

"I don’t follow," Mickey frowned.

"Sharks have multiple rows of teeth. They have a row of regular, functional teeth at the front, with rows of replacement teeth behind it. In this case, though, these enlarged teeth don’t seem to appear all the time, only when they need to bite. Also, it doesn’t seem to be a full set, it’s just these canines, and they're in front of the regular teeth, not behind. When they're not in use, they must sit underneath these flappy gum thingies."