The Dark Messenger (5 page)

‘Test me you old fool, see if your guards
will protect you,’ Kaine growled.

A second then passed of
ominous silence, but it was broken as a voice spoke: ‘Shall I leave
now, my Master?
’

Visibly relieved at the interruption, Rex
smiled and turned to the speaker.

‘Yes. Longinus. It is time.’ He clapped his
hands and said loudly, ‘Guards prepare the time travel ritual.’ As
they scurried to obey him, the old vampire addressed his servant, a
newly arrived vampire who stood just inside the doorway.

‘Longinus, you have only been in this coven
of ours for some eighty-five years, and already you have impressed
me a lot. I let you stay initially because of the information you
gave us about the priest, but that does not mean your life here is
guaranteed. Fail me and it will mean much pain, and keep in mind
that you cannot hide from the dark spirits. Make sure you find this
human woman, Jenny Barker, in Brighton. When you do, you must turn
her into a vampire. The location you have.’

‘
Yes, my master,’ came the
reply.

‘Very well then. Twice daily you must leave
us messages so that we know everything is going to plan, since we
are eighty-five years ahead. You will chisel the messages into the
bark of the old oak tree, which I have indicated to you. Do you
remember the location of the tree?’

‘Yes I do,’ Longinus replied, careful not to
sound too condescending.

‘Fail us, and I promise you will die an
agonising death,’ Rex added with a scowl.

‘Yes, sir,’ Longinus said quietly. He bowed
his head down as if already guilty of failure.

‘I send you alone, since you will have more
chance to blend in without being seen. Should you require help,
however, ask for it and my elite guards will be sent to you.’

‘My Master, I thank you. I will not fail
you,’ Longinus said as he disappeared through the doorway.

All eyes were on the departing messenger,
until Rex loudly exclaimed, ‘And on another issue. For thousands of
years we have only been but a whisper on the breaths of humans,
dark imaginings in the night. No one had ever known for sure that
we really existed.’

He paused to pace up and down a couple of
times, building up the excited expectations of his audience.
Stopping in front of his seat, he put his hands on the railing in
front of him. Gazing sternly around the room, he went on, ‘Recently
the Scottish vampire clan in Edinburgh have ignored our sacred
rules and have killed freely. We have been exposed, and there is no
covering it up. Our existence is now being televised on the humans’
news channels all across the world.‘

He paused before saying, ’ And I know some of
your views of past was that our previous war with them was only so
I could steal their riches, but that was not true, and now we must
hold them accountable for their actions, else Satan is sure to
punish our whole species for breaking the age old rule.’

‘We have told the Scottish clan that we are
coming to discuss this matter peacefully.’ He smiled, a malicious
gleam in his eye. ‘However, when we get there we are going to let
loose our infected humans, and at midnight the beasts will kill
them all!’

Pausing to collect himself, he then looked
down at the vampires and shouted,

‘Fuck peace! It’s WAR!’

The assembly roared their approval, their
evil screams ricocheting around the room.

The noise in response to the idea of another
battle coming was unbelievable, and even though the previous war,
had seemed like their leader was only wanting Angus’ riches, they
still agreed for another war. Looming inside their brains, which
helped them make the decision to battle again, was the fear that
Satan would be furious with them if they ignored and didn’t
attack.

Hoidrious grinned inwardly as he
reminded himself about how easy Stage
One in his own plan had been. He felt sure that soon he would
become the new rightful leader of the coven and Rex would be forced
to step down.

Rex, unaware of his seditious thoughts, then
paused for a moment to let his coven’s members express themselves.
He then held his hand up for silence, and as everyone quieted down,
he continued:

‘And when my warriors return from Scotland,
we will send werewolves to Paris and all the other major cities
across the world. Soon the planet will be swarming with these
beasts, and after the humans die, mother-nature will hopefully be
able to cure itself.’

Kaine could not disagree with the idea of
less humans. Halving the planets’ population might actually help
the planet, but Rex’s plan was pure insanity. Werewolves were their
main enemy, had the old fool finally gone mad?

He glanced up at Rex who was leaning over the
edge, his shrewd eyes upon him.

‘Kaine, I see you look like you disagree with
me, so I will explain. We have finally found the sacred silver
sword, so releasing the werewolves is safe. There is no risk of
starting another huge war with them. We will keep the mother
werewolf here, and all of her offspring can run wild around the
planet. When we want to stop their destruction it’s simple--we just
use the silver sword.’

‘And just how are we going to locate them
all? Put homing collars on them?’ Kaine asked cynically.

Rex shook his head and sighed. ‘Let me
explain,’ he replied, looking at Kaine as if he was one of the more
ignorant schoolboys in the class. ‘The silver sword’s powers are so
strong that if we behead the mother in the dungeons with it, then
all her children running around the world will die too.’

‘But we all know the myth, Rex,’ Kaine
insisted. ‘The silver sword is locked, you fool. There’s a spell on
it and it can’t be used.’

Rex’s grin was wide and evil. ‘The sword has
a spell on it, yes that’s true.’ He then glared at Kaine, all
semblance of humour gone. ‘But Longinus has just gone back in time,
and after he turns this Jenny person, I’m sure the holders of the
spell—meaning the church—will release it. That is, after I
blackmail its leaders.’

Rex paused. He looked around himself, then
leant forwards on his ledge and spat dark black phlegm onto the
dead guard below. He then wiped his mouth on his sleeve and
said,

‘We have recently learnt in the near past
that a priest who we know only as John, had a child with a nun.
This is, of course, forbidden in the church. The foolish priest
broke their sacred rules, and if the leaders had found out he would
be banished from the priesthood forever. They would have no choice,
since he broke his vows to God that he made during the
administering of the Sacrament of Holy Orders. The child in its
eyes would be a terrible thing. The priest abandoned his daughter
Jenny when she was only a day old, and never told his superiors
about her.’

Rex chuckled to himself. ‘They will be
furious with him for it, I’m sure.’ Everyone else laughed with
him.

He fixed Kaine with his gaze and continued,
‘Longinus has just gone back in time to 2014 to find her. When he
does, he will turn her into one of us. In the year he arrives, she
is not a baby anymore but a 30-year-old woman. He doesn’t have a
lot of time to accomplish this, because she dies in the same year.
I know this because my dark spirits have warned me.’

He gave a half-smile. ‘I know the priest
knows and hates us, but he will have no choice. I will send a
messenger to arrange the meeting. Then I’m going to tell him to
lift the spell on the sword or I will not only have his daughter
here as my slave forever, I will also tell his precious church
about his infidelity to his vows too.’

Kaine buried his face into his hands and
began to shake his head from side to side. He was tired of
listening to this rubbish, and could sense that his body was
telling him he was about to wake.

Was this all just some horrible dream.

Chapter 5 - Sleeping in
the Rain

‘Oh my god! Becky! It’s me, Jenny!’

The voice ricocheted for a moment around
inside Becky’s head, only vaguely recognized, as she lay face down
and completely naked on her bathroom floor. She was finding it
really hard to leave the dream state that she was in and to make
that final jump back to full consciousness into this
world--wherever it was. The world she had just been in had seemed
so real.

As she began to open her eyes, little by
little, she started to remember who she really was. Finally she
recognized her mate Jenny, who was on her knees next to her. She
could feel Jenny’s warm, bare arms around her shoulders and her
hands reaching down underneath her chest, trying to lift her up off
the floor. This was made somewhat difficult because Becky’s slim,
petite body was still inside the cubicle from the waist down, and
soaking wet. The water was still running, spraying the entire
room.

‘Whats…er…where am I? Where is Longinus?’
Becky mumbled, still only half awake and not really improving with
time.

‘Who is Longinus?’ Jenny asked, puzzled.

‘He’s my master.’ Becky replied as well as
she could, but she was finding it hard to pronounce her words
right. Everything still seemed so fuzzy. ‘He bit me and turned me
into his vampire,’ she finally managed to get out.

Jenny rocked back in shock and fear. ‘Hey
hun, stop talking shit!’ she quavered, her voice and her nerves on
edge. She shook Becky’s shoulder. ‘You are in your flat, babe. With
me. In Portslade.’ Jenny waved her hand in front of Becky’s face.
‘Remember me? Hello, Earth calling Becky. Remember me, your best
mate Jenny?’ She bent down and gazed into Becky’s eyes, relieved
that her friend seemed to be coming around. ‘Darling, you were
having a nightmare. Anyway, babe I am going to call an ambulance,’
she said, pondering over whether that was actually the right thing
to do.

‘How come you are here anyway?’ Becky asked,
still mumbling her words in a somewhat dreamlike state.

‘Babe, look around. You collapsed in your
shower. Your neighbour called me on my mobile because there was
water pouring through her lounge ceiling. She tried calling your
number first, but no answer. I panicked when I got the call in
Tesco’s and ran all the way here!’

Jenny gasped with the realization that the
shower was still on; she’d totally blanked it out when she had seen
Becky on the floor. Water was still overflowing the edge of the
shower tray and disappearing slowly into a crack between the shower
cubicle and the lino. She reached round with her right hand and
leant into the cubicle, slamming the lever down to shut off the
water. The shower head then fell limp and banged against the tiled
wall.

A few minutes later, Becky found herself
feeling a lot stronger. She managed to get herself up on to her
knees before slowly, with Jenny’s help, she was able to stand.

‘I’m alright,’ Becky said, lifting her left
arm up to show her mate that she had strength. She gave Jenny a
weak smile.

‘You sure?’ Jenny asked. When Becky nodded,
she reluctantly eased her grip around her mate’s body. As she did
though, Becky’s eyes rolled back in her head and she passed out,
falling backwards into the shower cubicle and slamming her head
against the wall.

Jenny screamed.

-------------------

Tracy was Becky’s neighbour, who lived below
her in an almost identical one-bed flat. She was the one who had
called Jenny and told her that there was water pouring through her
lounge ceiling. Tracy had been worried that maybe Becky had gone
away and had accidentally left a tap running or something.

Jenny had been deeply worried about Becky
because the whole day before she hadn’t even answered a single text
of hers. It was really strange, because normally they texted each
other at least ten times a day or so. They were closer than
sisters, although they couldn’t have been any more different from
each other.

Jenny was a tall, slim woman who was not
overly beautiful, but her looks were on the pleasant side of
average, with green eyes and shoulder-length auburn hair that was
always in a mess.

Everyone thought of Becky as a tomboy because
she did “boy stuff”. She fixed plumbing, cemented walls, built
sheds and rode a Ducati Monster motorcycle. She didn’t look like a
boy though at all; she had chin-length blonde hair and a little
petite sexy face. Her clothes were hardly boyish either; she always
wore tight faded jeans that hung low and sexily just below her hip
line, and her shirts always stopped just higher than her belly
button. This was completely the opposite of how Jenny looked. She
always wore a green-hooded Parker jacket from the 80’s, a tartan
skirt or dress, and a seriously out-of-date jumper too.

When Jenny got the call about the water
pouring through the ceiling, it had tripped her mind and sent her
into panic mode. She’d dropped her shopping and run the entire
length of the high street to Becky’s flat.

Even though it was past leaving for work time
on Monday morning, Tracy had seen Jenny arrive and watched her go
upstairs. She thought maybe she should have gone too, but it wasn’t
her responsibility. However, rather than getting ready to leave for
work, she’d waited instead, peering out of the window and
occasionally emptying the water from the catch basin under the
drizzle in her lounge.